Several years ago, when I was new to high-fi audio world I was looking for an answer to this question: is dap necessary in the world of smartphones, will you benefit from it if you are using even easy-to drive headphones? Very surprisingly after days of searching I couldn’t find a decisive answer to it. Bear in mind that I live in caucasia, where buying-selling this kind of technology is extremely limited, so I didn’t wanted to cash on device I wouldn’t use. In the end I decided and bought original fiio x3 (black one) to pair with first gen sennheiser momentums and luckily wasn’t disappointed. Same applies today, after 4 years, when it seems that audio quality is less important for smartphone manufacturers and have started to removing headphone jacks.

So long story short YES, you will benefit from getting even an entry level dap compared to high end smartphones, like galaxy s9, lg g6 etc.

Comparing Fiio x3II to Samsung galaxy s7 (Headphones used Sennheiser momentum 2.0, Fidue a83)

Two biggest advantages of X3II compared to smartphone is bass performance and soundstage. First of all you are getting much more power, that will drive your headphones to higher volume. My galaxy s7 couldn’t even get momentums to desired volume level. More power will give you much better bass performance – better impact and control. Also you are getting better soundstage/imaging. Instrument separation is also better. Everything has its own space and doesn’t sound like congested mess.

Fiio x3 II has better tone. By that I mean that instruments sound more lifelike, have better texture. Treble, unlike s7, isn’t harsh and artificial.

Conclusion:

From my personal experience, Fiio x3II is much better than a Samsung galaxy s7. I would say, in overall sound quality, you are getting 40-50% better sound performance. If you own a decent pair of headphones it’s definitely worth getting a dedicated Dap. You can get x3II on used market under 90$, which makes it very good value.

Thanks for attention!

I have been using this for over a year now and use it nearly daily. Extremely versatile component can be used not only for mobile play, but also line out to my receiver (don't yet have funds for dedicated media center), and as a DAC for my desktop and laptop. This allows me to have almost any combination of source and output that I need from one portable device. The mobile setup is easy and music transfer directly to the micro-SD is a lot faster than through the device. Going through my ATH-M50x, the music is incredibly clear for DSD or FLAC tracks and there even is a noticeable jump in quality playing the same MP3 on the same headphones between my phone and the Fiio. The dedicated line level out allows me to plug it directly into my receiver to get FLAC play on my home setup without an expensive dedicated server or decoder or upgrading my current equipment. The DAC feature took a long time to troubleshoot as the exact order software is installed is extremely important. A recent revision to the installation guide has cleared up this confusion almost completely (might have been just me.) The user interface is fairly intuitive, but creating playlists on the device is extremely cumbersome. I have not tried exporting playlists as of yet, but I should try that. Battery life is extremely impressive, even at decent volumes. Overall, a great buy I would not change. The X1 was missing a few features I was looking for and the X5 was more than I needed.

I just got one of these last night. Unfortunately where I live there's no possibility of hearing one of these before buying one (or really any other DAPs apart from mainstream, iPod, etc.). So after a bunch of research and reading reviews online this seemed like it'd be a great player.
 
I've previously had a few Cowons - iAudioE2, S9 and J3. My J3 is supposedly gapless playback, but it seems like it can't handle gapless with FLAC files, so I've been looking for an upgrade.
 
The Fiio X3 definitely has a smaller soundstage than my J3 - the music sounds more cramped. This was my first thoughts, so I did a side by side comparison (with the same Sennheiser Momentum 2 headphones) and sure enough it's a muddier, less distinct sound on the X3. Bass range definitely extends lower on the J3, giving it more punch and I think helps contribute to a wider more spacious sound than the X3.
 
Don't get me wrong, the X3 2nd gen is a nice player and has a very simple no-frills, high functionality UI. Sound isn't bad, just okay to my ears. But I think I'll be sticking with my J3 for daily listening - not to mention the battery life on the J3 is crazy, I can't even remember when I last charged it. My X3 might end up living in my car or as a handy music library to connect to my stereo - I find most DAPs, etc. are too quiet when connecting up to the car stereo through the headphone jack, but here the line out on the X3 might come in handy and give a bit more volume, so I can use the X3 without having to switch CDs all the time.
 
Overall I'm a little disappointed as I was hoping for more, but I guess I've been spoiled by great sound and maybe I've inadvertently become a snob. Wait, I'm posting a review about my new DAP - probably a snob
 
PS. Purchase price indicated is NZD with courier delivery
 
Re: Uberclocked. For some reason I can't post a comment below, so will just add here: I volume matched the units using a decibel meter on my phone placed between the headphones. Not exact, I know, but is about the most I can do without more equipment. I don't mean for my review to come off too negative - in all honesty they both have a decent sound. I'll probably warm to it a bit more with extra listening, and playing around with the EQ a little.

I've only used Sansa devices prior to getting this player a few weeks ago - Fuzes and Clip+'s - and I wondered if the Fiio X3 2nd Gen would provide any perceptible audio improvement. Within a minute or two of swapping the SD card over the answer became obvious: yes, there's an improvement and it's actually a pretty big one. I'm no word-smith audiophile and it's pretty much all been said but I can say this: transparency, detail, separation, sound-stage, blackness of background - they are all simply better with the X3 2nd Gen than with the Sansas. I've kept a Clip+ for ultimate portability (for jogging  with, basically) but I've sold the Fuzes as the X3 2nd Gen made them instantly redundant. I was very fond of my Fuzes and I would never have guessed that the audio upgrade would have been so noticeable or so devastating with regard to my affection for the little Sandisk devices.
 
In terms of the usability: it's great. My player came loaded with the newest 1.44Beta firmware and it makes using the wheel simply an efficient and straightforward way to navigate files and volume with no niggles or glitches at all. It may not have been so in the past and I can see that a scroll wheel with such noticeable clicks that wasn't synchronised with items on a list would be a recipe for instant crazy irritation - but with this firmware though, as far as I can see, the matter is just closed. It's fixed, it works and for me at least, it's a non-issue.
 
Actually getting my hands on the X3 2nd Gen made me realise how misleading reading lots of reviews prior to actually using a device can be. It's possible to pick up on several points that individual reviewers have found to be sticking points and accumulate them all into a ball of confusion about the player. So I had a pile of preconceptions and worries about the X3 2nd Gen that turned out to uniformly baseless: I'd need to upgrade the firmware with it straight away (no); the wheel was glitchy in use (absolutely not); the wheel cannot be used to adjust volume (it totally can); you can only skip tracks with the side buttons when the player is locked (nope, you can use them to adjust volume too: long press versus short press); the screen is unreadable outdoors (no, it's fine - and my eyesight is pretty poor. Just boost the brightness and take the small battery life loss in your stride); having no internal storage is a pain (no, it doesn't matter at all if you can put huge micro SD cards in, and you can); the drivers for the DAC are almost impossible to install in Windows (really no, they're not. I just followed the guide and bingo: a great USB DAC as well as a great DAP).
 
So it's a great player and a clear upgrade - for me at least - over the Sansa's that I've owned before. Does it mean that my lust for portable aural pleasure has been sated for good? I suspect not. Those DX90's look kinda interesting to me and the fun of putting Rockbox on them appeals too (Rockbox for the X3 2nd Gen? Well, yes please!) but the price jump to the Ibasso is a pretty big one. So for the time being, the X3 2nd Gen suits me just fine.

I upgraded to a second generation Fiio X3 after owning the first generation for over a year. Here is my feedback after six weeks of use:

Sound quality is slightly better, more refined/sophisticated sounding than the first generation. Subtle details are placed better in the soundstage, but as others have pointed out, the sound is not as "sweet" as the first generation. It's a fair bit quieter, with a bit more nuance, and a better sense of space. I suspect that this is because of the built-in amp, and not the DAC.

Unfortunately, this is where the improvements begin and end. In every other possible way, this 2nd generation is a big disappointment compared to the first generation. Here are the most frustrating aspects of this player (rendered even more frustrating by the fact that the first generation did not have these issues)

- Scroll wheel. I have never been a fan of the ipod scroll wheel, so I would cite this as a negative even if this wheel was well implemented, but it is not well implemented at all. The responsiveness of the wheel is so frustrating that, in my opinion, it is almost unusable. The wheel has physical increments built in to its scrolling mechanism, so you can actually feel little clicks as you turn the wheel. This is supposed to give you tactile feedback to the scrolling you are doing. It would be a great idea if the increments/clicks actually corresponded with items on the list, but they don't. You would think that each increment/click moves the cursor down one item on the list, but it doesn't. Sometimes, when you turn the wheel and feel the increment/click, the device does not scroll at all, and the same item remains selected. Other times, scrolling one increment/click will skip an item and scroll down two items. So, sometimes one click doesn't move the cursor at all, other times it  moves it too far and skips the item you are trying to select, and only rarely does the wheel actually function as I imagine it is supposed to, with one click moving the cursor one item. There were many complaints about the first generation's button layout. I've never shared these complaints. While I thought that the first generation's buttons looked a little weird when I first received the item, it took me two days to get used to them. You have the option not to use the scroll wheel, but to use the button on the front, but even if you are using the buttons and not the scroll wheel, the button layout and button operations are actually a lot more confusing and less intuitive than the first generation. The first generation had nothing wrong with the button layout. It just looked funny so people thought it was weird. Anyone who actually used the first generation Fiio X3 for more than a few days would tell you than the button layout is actually very intuitive and functions very well. The second generation is designed entirely with the scroll wheel in mind. If you don't want to use the scroll wheel, the option to use the buttons appears to have been added as an afterthought because it's just not convenient to use.

- Playlist management. This is one of the most frustrating features of this player. As far as I know, there is no way to remove a song from favorites if the song has been deleted. It can only be deleted from favorites if you play the song, click the menu button, and toggle whether or not it's a "heart." If you have songs added to favorites, but the songs are no longer on the SD card, then good luck deleting them. The menu gives you the option to delete the song, but nothing happens when you try. Also, the self-created playlists cannot be deleted. It gives you the option to delete them, but when you try, nothing happens. This is a firmware issue, and I hope it will be fixed, but it is extremely frustrating because it's such a basic problem that there is really no excuse for this type of thing. 

- Screen responsiveness. Switching screens takes longer on the second generation than it did on the first generation. Backing out of the "now playing" menu to see the folder you are listening to takes twice as long as it did on the first generation. Every subsequent push of the "back" button also takes longer to reach the previous menu than it did on the first generation. This isn't a big deal, as it literally takes half a second, but it's frustrating to think that my first generation was better at loading menu screens.

- The amplifier is weaker. Powering my Etymotic ER4B, I have to turn the volume up all the way to 120, and it's still not loud enough for my taste. The amp in the first generation Fiio X3 was able to power my ER4B fine, but this is significantly quieter. It's fine if your headphones don't require much juice and all you listen to is brickwalled, overly loud CD rips, but I listen to vinyl rips and HDtracks, which are mastered significantly quieter, so I require an amplifier that can take a quiet track and bring it up to a loud enough level that it will sound good even with power hungry headphones. So, while the DAC in the 2nd generation is a more sophisticated sounding, the amplifier is significantly weaker. I am not into the idea of "stacking" this with a separate amplifier because I hate bulky items, so this is a significant shortfall. But it won't affect most listeners, who listen to CD rips and don't have power hungry headphones.

- Item is thicker. To me, it makes no difference that it's slightly shorter. It's thicker, which causes it to take up more room in your pocket.

- No internal storage. You lose 8GB of internal storage when upgrading to the 2nd generation.

Having said all that, I still think this is a good DAC and a great value. If I never owned the first generation Fiio X3, I wouldn't be making most of these complaints. I wouldn't have anything to compare it to, so I'd simply get used to the badly implemented scroll wheel and the annoying user interface and firmware issues. But when you consider the fact that the first generation of this player did not have these shortfalls, it becomes frustrating.

I recommend saving a $100 and getting the first generation.

So, first off, I must say that for 200 dollars (or 170, in my case, for a unit that was previously a store-display model), you CANNOT go wrong with this superb little DAP.  The soundstage and dynamics, detail separation, and overall frequency-response are FAR AND AWAY better than what you hear in something like an iPod, Zune, or Smartphone.  That being said, does it sound as good as a 1400 dollar hi-Res Walkman, or a 1000 dollar Astell and Kern or HiFiMan DAP?  No, of course it doesn't, but you're only paying 200 bucks for it so just sit back and enjoy it, guys   The bass is very accurate, in fact, the WHOLE frequency-range seems incredibly accurate on this through my V-Moda Crossfade M-80 headphones, but I will say thaty the treble seems just a LITTLE bit bright, to the point where when it's on a high enough volume that the mid-range doesn't QUITE hurt my ears yet, some of the higher treble-notes sound a bit painful.  But it's probably not good to listen to it that loudly for extended periods of time anyway, so it's not much of an issue.  The sound also is a TAD bit more analytical as opposed to warm or fun, but many people may like this. . .personally, I'd prefer a bit more warmth, but heck, this is still WAY more fun-sounding than my laptop's on-board sound, or the sound from my old iPod for that matter!  Then there's the fact that unlike the X1, you can use this as a USB DAC for your computer. . .and oh BOY does it improve vastly upon the onboard sound in my laptop!  As a result, you're basically paying for two devices in one, both a DAP AND a DAC, which only serves to make this an even BETTER value for your money.  It is also quite good at driving headphones at al different impedance levels, even without an amp, although I'd imagine that if you're using something with an impedance int he range of a few-hundred ohms, you probably want to pair this with an amp.  The UI is quite customizable, and it has a very nice built-in equalizer.  The build-quality is excellent, all solid-aluminum, and it comes with some nice accessories: a silicone carrying-case, and a line-out with gold-plated connectors.  Also some stickers that personally I think are kind of silly, haha.
 
All that being said, the X3 2nd Gen certainly has its issues, although nothing that I find to truly be a nuisance.  The UI seems to "glitch out" sometimes, and in very random ways that I can't even quite describe, leaving me no choice but to force a shutdown and restart the device.  I use this for at least six hours a day, and the glitches seem to occur maybe every third day or so. . .not too bad, really, it hardly bothers me at all.  Right now the device is only on v1.1 of its firmware. . .I'm sure that the glitches will be fixed in future updates from Fiio!   UPDATE (September 10, 2015): Sure enough, since installing the newest released stable firmware, v1.3, for the X3ii, I have not experienced a single glitch, either in DAP mode or USB DAC mode.  Also, it seems like things lag a little bit less when browsing through files and skipping songs.  This is still a very early version of the device's firmware, but already seems to have fixed the vast majority of stability issues.  Very nice job, Fiio programmers!
 
I would recommend this device for ANYONE looking to buy a good DAP for anywhere under 300 dollars to vastly improve upon the sound they get from their smartphone, laptop, or other such devices.

First of all, I'd like to thank FiiO for sending me this sample to review as part of the Australian / NZ tour.
 
 
FiiO is an ever expanding Chinese company no stranger to the portable audio world - with the likes of their early amps such as FiiO E5, E11 and other early products. Over passing months they've completely expanded busting out into the portable audio player market and doing so at great speed. Their ever increasing performance ratio doesn't seem to stop and that's exactly what you'll find today in FiiO X3II. The new player from FiiO brings a pocket size unit packed at the absolute seams with features, some of which usually only found in more expensive players from other companies.
 
 
From USB OTG storage, DSD Playback, 24BIT support, true line out, USB DAC Mode, huge audio format support, X3II answers almost everyone's expectations.
 

 
 
 
 
Let's take a look at the players specs and features.
 
 
 
 
 
Like I said, packed to the brim with usable features - for the going price of around $240 AUD that's one big shoe filled for anyone seeking value for money. While I'll only ever use 16/44 FLAC files with X3II I know its a good thing for consumers and sale side of things, especially with the increasing popularity of hi-res 24bit files. The more features you add, the further you reach out to the consumer, it seems FiiO are well aware of that. But its more than this. FiiO take pride in supplying content for money, they enjoy satisfaction making (you) the buyer comfortable with your purchase.
 
 
 
It doesn't stop there though, let's take a look at the accessories included!
 
 
x3 Decal Stickers
USB Charge / Data Cable.
Digital Out Cable
Silicon Case / Cover
x2 Spare Screen Protectors (one also installed on arrival)
Documentation 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
A quick look around the player.
 
 
 

 
On the left-hand side you have your power button, volume up, volume down.
 
 
 

 
On the lower right your micro sd card slot.
 
 
 
 

 
 
At the bottom your micro USB charge / data port - just above that (quite small) the round power indication light.
 
The light while lluuminate blue when power is on and red whilst charging.
 
 

 
Moving up to the very top your headphone out and beside that your line out / coax out. 
 
(there is a setting to flick between line out /coax out in the X3II settings)
 
 
 
Build Quality.
 
As shown in the pictures above X3II is no slouch when it comes to build, the metal casing feels quite solid, in person giving the resemblance of something more expensive.The sides are smooth, seamless and even the backplate has a clear finish which gives the appearance of glass. I give strong points to the build quality on a unit at this price. It really feels nice in the hand, you feel like holding something worth what you paid. Not always found in the Chinese market.
 
 
 

 
User settings.
 
One thing I've been overly impressed with on both FiiO X1 and X3II is the amount of settings offered even making iBasso players look average. Inside X3II's user-interface is an overabundance of settings, some even making an iPod look plain. From themes to adjustable max volume restriction X3II seems to have every base covered.
 
 
 
System Settings
 
Update Media Library (switch between manual / auto)
Key-Lock Settings (several options)
Screen timeout
Brightness
Idle Power Off (on / off)
Idle Power Off time
Sleep (on / off)
Sleep Timer (duration)
Multifunctional outputs (switches between line out and coax)
USB mode (switch between DAC or Storage)
Themes (several to choose from)
Support in-line volume control (on / off)
File name display (Title, Filename)
About X3 (shows firmware version, storage space)
 
 
Play Settings
 
Resume mode (on / off)
Gapless playback (on / off)
Max Volume (set limit)
Default Volume (set to remember your last position on start-up)
Fixed Volume Setting
Gain (low / high)
Equalizer (several presets and custom EQ)
Balance (left / right)
Play Through Folders
 
 
Phew, as I said, I don't know how FiiO thought of them all let alone implement them to work seamlessly. There's enough features there to play your own arcade game if put to good use. While I won't ever use them all its about flexibility of having them. Each person is different as is their wants and needs.
 
 
User interface.
 
Because I browse by folder only X3II makes life very easy. I simply click on "browse folders" enter into my micro sd card and away I go. All my music is there showing the folder title. There are options for those who use Artist, Album, Genre, Favourites, Playlists, but none of this ever gets used by myself. I look at X3II like any other player, I select an album from the folder directory and usually let it play through.
 
Which brings us to the scroll wheel. Many people seem mildly underwhelmed with FiiO scroll wheel implementation. They say it doesn't function accurately or misses their selection. While I can agree to some extent its not perfect, I have used far worse in my time, and for most parts X3II gets me where I need to without much hassle. And if scrolling ever becomes tedious or you feel hindered the bottom left / right (change track buttons) also work for scrolling whenever in a menu screen. One thing I would like to see in the future is FiiO adapt into the touch screen interfaces, as I must admit its one area I feel iBasso offers ease of use in comparison.
 
 
Sound Quality
 
 
Gear used: Fidue A83, Grado SR325e, Aurisonics ASG-2, Etymotic ER4S.
 
Files: 16/44 FLAC
 
 
 
 
The sound, a place where we start to wander off the strong road we'd been heading down. To get things out of the way I do feel X3II is a very competent player, its strong technically, areas like instrument separation and overall coherency are quite sophisticated for the money. Its especially skilled at keeping everything in sync without losing much cohesiveness. Each instrument separates well defined as does each bass note, the treble maybe a little rolled off or absence (a safe road?). I have a lot to say about how technically sophisticated this player is for $240 AUD, every time I listen for these aspects I've felt completely impressed, even next to iBasso DX50 which does not hold the same posture, especially in separation.
 
Another area is the refinement and overall resolution offered by X3II is quite strong, you always notice great presence and stance of the music along with a strong sense of musicality, the type that gets your foot tapping without noticing and great for casual listening. But where we start to leave one another is, I find X3II to lack a little overall vibrance around the mid-range and its ability to reveal detail isn't what I find in an iBaso DX50. Don't get me wrong here, the sound of X3II is very good, especially where I mentioned, but I always sense a little too much warmth from the presentation or soft veil which restricts those final levels of clarity or bite in the presentation.
 
Whilst this can have a huge upside of lessening listening fatigue for long sessions it always leaves me a little underwhelmed, at least compared to my DX50 unit. Then I think what the hell and listen to how strong X3II is technically and those feeling go away. It isn't a complete deal breaker what I hear in X3 detail retrieval, but a little more next time would be welcome please, or at least a lift in the tonality. Soundstage is adequate in width, though nothing overly excessive. I never feel closed in however and your headphone plays a major role.
 
 
Line out
 
When using the line out I'm able to bypass X3II's internal amp section and it does sound that little bit cleaner. I hear on the forums many people are having great results using X3II with their external amps, so if adding an amp for more power, flavouring  the sound is your thing you'll be mighty impressed overall. Personally, I think X3II headphone out will suit brighter sounding headphones, take Grado for example, this will show great results. The beauty of having line out is you can increase power output and add some flavour!
 
 
Conclusion.
 
I think what X3II has, offers, shows the audio world is marvelous, it packs so many features, settings, everything you would want from a player in 2015, the most features I've seen from any player since my time in audio at under the $300 mark. The build quality and overall package is just great and you will get above what you pay for. And I think for the majority out there X3II will serve up a competitive sound level that can show any mainstream player a thing or two. Its just for those of us who are seeking a little more bite or vibrance, maybe even cooler/brighter preferences may be a little under the rain with the sound X3II puts out. I personally am one of those people.
 
Will this stop me enjoying X3II? Hell no, because I can hear the potential X3II has technically, I can admire the way it makes my foot tap without trying. X3II will be used as my main on the go player where critical listening isn't of great importance. and if I ever want to get critical I can bypass the warmish amp section using line out.
 
Thanks again FiiO for showing the audio world what you can do!
 
~H20

 
 
 
-~::The Review::~-
 
I’m not much of an audiophile. I’m too new. It was only this last January I bought my first pair of decent headphones. Since acquiring the Klipsch R6m it’s been a weird romp of financial irresponsibility. 
 
After upgrading to the Klipsch X7i a month later, I realized I needed a better DAC than the one inside my Galaxy S4. I could hear the limitations of that poor thing. So I did some research and settled on the Dragonfly 1.2 by Audioquest.
 

 

 
 
In a lot of ways, this is a review of the Dragonfly nearly as much as it is of the X3ii. For the last four months, my mobile Digital Audio Player has been my Samsung Galaxy S4 connected to the Dragonfly via USB On-The-Go. That’s the comparison I must make. As I said, I’m new to this. My store of equipment has the limitations of a light purse and short time.
 
Be warned, ere you read on! I’m not a professional reviewer. In fact, I’m a ramped amateur. There will be no readings, or measurements, and if the review happens upon some semblance of structure, know in your heart it was incidental.
 
For the first two days with the X3ii I paired it solely with my newest IEM, the Audio Technica IM03. I’d owned these phones for a few weeks now, and was intimately familiar with the sound they produced with the Dragonfly. 25 days of near-perfect auditory rapture. So you can perhaps understand my irritation when I plugged them into the FiiO and was aggressively underwhelmed. It sounded cheap and small compared to the Dragonfly. There was plenty of power, but no comfort to any of the notes.
 
I thought, “Holy Hell! This can’t be right.” All the reviews spoke very highly of it. Maybe they weren’t comparing it to DACs, but only other DAPs. Maybe the DAP market is cluttered with poor audio. I wouldn’t know. Like I said, the Galaxy>Dragonfly combo is the closest thing I have to a DAP.
 

 
 
Two days, I fiddled with it at work. My job has me sitting at a bench all day testing controller boards for air-conditioning units. I’m an electronics bench tech. So I can listen to my music all day long… and I do. When I say I fiddled with it for two days, I mean two whole work days.
 
At the end of the second day, I came home quite depressed over the affair. Not only because my new toy was poop from a butt, no, this suggested the whole DAP market was a cesspool of undesirable products. If, of course, you inferred the state of the market by the praise the X3ii received. Which I did, and then howled at the moon with a belly full of despair… and tacos.
 
It was in this dejection I pulled out my Klipsch X7i. I had always intended to try out the FiiO on all my headphones. You need data to make a cake. Or you need cake ingredients. But I was all out of eggs and flower.
 
Sad and miserable, I put the eartips in and pressed Play. HOT DAMN! This thing sounded kind of good. No, it sounded excellent. The music was smoother, no longer dark, and the details were coming out to play. It even sounded more open. It was a transformation the likes of which I couldn’t believe.
 
You’d think I was happy. And I was… sort of. The burr in my panties was that this meant the awesome-sauce ATH-IM03 was the problem. Everyone knows the ATH-IM series are tricky to pair. The 03s sounded messy in my desktop DAC/Amp as well. So my best and favorite earphones would not pair with my one and only DAP. This notion did not uplift my rotting spirit.
 
As I tried to sleep that night I was struck by a moment of clarity. I jolted out of bed, turned on my computer monitor and submitted a return on Amazon for the IM03. Three days before the 30-day return policy expired. Then, to do this properly, I placed an order for the IM04, and splurged on 1-day shipping.
 
That was Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday were spent with the fabulous paring of X3ii and X7i. Friday evening I came home to the ATH-IM04.
 

 
 
If the Klipsch phones brought the X3ii out of the muck, the IM04 unlocked its full potential. Four drivers need a little extra juice, so I run on High Gain, and there is nothing about the sound that does not impress. The bass is enormous and ever-present. There is sparkle in the guitar plucks and vocals. Plenty of micro detail pops up all over. You can hear the slight echo of vocals as the soundwaves bounce around the recording room. The X3ii renders a wonderfully smooth, vibrant sound.
 
What was once a chasm between the FiiO and the Audioquest is now a mere hop and a skip. Nonetheless, the gap is there. Audioquest’s USB DAC gives a more refined sound. The overall signature is much alike between the two, yet the Dragonfly has an extended soundstage and depth. They create more or less equal levels of detail. In the sub frequencies there are more natural tones and texturing with the Dragonfly.
 
When the sound is narrower and more in-your face, as it is with the X3ii, it comes off a little artificial. The Dragonfly spaces everything out quite well, and it sounds more realistic because of it. This impression might owe some tribute to how familiar I am with the Dragonfly’s sound. However, over the last week I’ve listen to the X3ii almost exclusively, save a little A/B testing.
 
I volume-matched the two units by ear, and even gave the X3ii a notch or two extra, out of wanton benevolence. My appraisal is as accurate as I care to make it. I do get ever so bored with tedium.
 
On the grounds of amperage, the X3ii wrestles down the Dragonfly and sprains the DAC’s ankle. I’ve had an ankle sprain many times; I use the metaphor with all the weight one can muster in times such as these. It gave my Sennheiser HD600 enough power to sound more than decent at high volume. In order to really rock-out I need to set the volume very near the X3ii’s limits, but it works. Of course, it’s fairly far removed from the might and beauty of a proper headphone amp. Still… not bad. The Dragonfly really loses grace when trying to power the HD600. When I start raising the gain in USB Audio Player Pro, the sound deteriorates.
 
I solemnly deem the FiiO X3K a brilliant device. If I had paid much more for it, I would have expected more. As it stands, the DAP does not carry with it great financial burden. Instead, it mocks its price tag and delivers a lovely, clear, and rich auditory experience.
 
There. That happened. You want to know about menus and buttons? Do you lust after information about that sultry scroll wheel? Read those other reviews. They're better.
 
-~::Pinky_Powers::~-

Many Thanks to Fiio for the review sample!
I`ve been a Fiio user for some time. Currently I have Fiio X3 (1st gen) and Fiio E12DIY amp. Also had Fiio X5 before, and I reviewed Fiio X1 a while ago. So far my experiences with Fiio products have been positive.

 

Review sections:

Summary, Pros & Cons, Suggestions for improvement.
Sound Quality & Comparisons.
Features & Measurements.

 
 



 
 

 

Summary

Design wise, Fiio X3 2nd gen looks closer to Fiio X1, and very different from the older Fiio X3. The heart of the player is DAC chip Cirrus Logic CS4398, which is also used in higher end players such as Astell&Kern AK120 II and AK240. X3 2nd gen supports playback of both PCM and DSD, all the way up to PCM 24bit-192kHz and DSD128. Not only it supports most of the common audio file formats, it also supports CD image formats (wav / flac / ape + .cue) and SACD ISO image. Basically it plays nearly almost all common audio formats.  

 
 

Beside as a standalone player, Fiio X3 2nd gen also functions as USB DAC. As USB DAC it also supports both high resolution PCM and DSD format as well. While PCM support is up to 24bit-192kHz, in DAC mode DSD support is only for DSD64. Probably it will support DSD128 as well in the future, but as the time of this review, only DSD64 is supported in DAC mode. Nevertheless, for such a small player in this price range, those features are already very impressive.  

A few features that I consider improvement from X3 are:
Sleep or hibernation after a certain time of idles, instead of total power off. We know that iPod already implemented this long time ago, but this is a great improvement from previous Fiio players. After idle for a few minutes (adjustable from 1 to 8 minutes), the player goes to hibernation mode, and consuming less than 5 mW during hibernation. And the player will immediately ON when we press the power button. Anyway, even without this feature, X3 2nd gen starts pretty fast, from power off to ready to use in less than 10 seconds.
Improved EMI immunity. My experience with Fiio X1, X3, and also iBasso DX90, they might get interfered by phone EMI, and occasionally I can hear EMI noise when hold them side by side with my smartphone. But so far none with Fiio X3 2nd gen. The all-metal chassis function as an excellent EMI shield for the player. Watch the video below showing EMI test on X3 2nd gen and other players.  

 
 

Feature rich is not good enough without good sound quality. Don't be fooled by the modest price tag, Fiio X3 2nd gen sounds way beyond its price tag, both the headphone output and line output sound quality. What impresses me most is the soundstage. It has 3D holographic imaging that has been greatly improved from 1st generation X3. Imaging is more 3D, wider, and more spacious, with good layering and better depth. Also quite accurate in instruments separation & placement. Hall's acoustic portrays realistically. The improved soundstage greatly improved the music listening experience.  

Although the old X3 has more powerful headphone output than X3 2nd gen, but most of the time the extra power doesn't translate to better sound on IEMs, and even on some full size headphones. Headphone output of the X3 2nd gen has more than enough power for most IEMs. X3 2nd gen sounds powerful with all earphone / IEMs I've tested. Therefore, IMHO, the more refined sound quality of Fiio X3 2nd gen with its spacious holographic imaging is preferable than the high power output of the X3. I've also tested X3 2nd gen to drive some full size headphones, Philips Fidelio X1, Philips SHP9500, Shure SRH840, Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 & Audio-Technica ATH-M50, no driving issue at all, X3 2nd gen drove them with full authority, spacious imaging, detailed, with good quality & powerful bass. Really impressive to hear this little player drives those full size headphones, it really has good driving power.  

Beside the imaging quality that impresses me most, X3 2nd gen has a very neutral tonality. It has excellent detail, clarity, and transparency, at the level that is just right, before entering to the analytical region. Both line and headphone outputs have good bass and treble extension. Dynamic is surprisingly quite lively. Transient is fast and snappy. Bass has good punch and speed, with good texture, at neutral level, without any bass emphasize or de-emphasized. Detail and clarity are excellent, clean sounding with realistic transparency, without sounding analytical. The headphone output can drive some low impedance full size headphones really well, with sound quality that pretty much conveys the quality of the DAC, and relatively sounds as good as the line output.  

It could be due to the dual clocks in X3 2nd gen are very well implemented and perform better than X3 clock, or it could also be due to better design of the analogue output stage, or other improvements. But one thing for sure, Fiio have done it well on X3 2nd gen. It is not only feature rich, but to my ears it has the sound quality that is simply punches through its suggested price tag. Overall I rated it a little less than 5 stars due to mostly the quality of the LCD display, and playlist management that could be improved. But for sound quality alone, I would rate it 5 stars. Kudos to Fiio!  

 
 

Pros:

Exceptional sound quality from such a small and affordable player.
Feature rich. It has almost everything we could expect from a modern player in this category.
Sleep / Hibernation mode.
Good battery life.
Very good all-metal chassis build quality with excellent EMI immunity.
 

Cons:

LCD display could be improved, especially for day time outdoor usage.
Not the best playlist management.
Silicon protective cover easily attracts dust and lint.
 

Suggestions for improvement:

Higher contrast and better resolution LCD display.
Better material for the protective cover, material that doesn't attracts dust and lint. 
Beside 'pure mode' line output, fix gain and without equalizer, it would be a nice feature if user can choose to enable volume and equalizer for the line & SPDIF output.
Option to enable headphone output when the line or SPDIF output is connected.
Option to enable and disable battery charging in USB DAC mode.
Option to disable volume lock feature when screen is off.
Larger database capacity for the library to manage more than 5800 songs.
Automatic playlists such as: Recently played lists, Most frequently played lists, and Recently added lists.
 


 
 

 

 

Sound Quality & Comparisons

 

The sound signature of Fiio X3 2nd gen is clean, detailed, spacious, and transparent, without sounding analytic. The detail and transparency sound natural, and not over emphasized to make it entering the analytic category. Overall tonality is neutral with very good spaciousness and driving power. It significantly sounds more spacious, with better imaging than the older X3. Clarity and detail are also improved from X3. X3 2nd gen is not a warm and mellow sounding type of player, but also not the harsh and analytic type. It has excellent perceived detail with the right level of smoothness to make it sounds musical. Driving power is good on X3 2nd gen, most of IEMs and full headphones I tried with it sound well driven.  

Personally I'm impressed with the sound quality of Fiio X3 2nd gen, and it has been my daily player for the last 2 months now. I found that it has good matching ability with most of the IEMs and headphones I tried, with my favourite pair would be to pair it with DUNU DN-2000. Simply a wonderful sounding portable system, probably one of the best neutral sounding portable system for under $500. Beside DN-2000, ATH-IM50 also matches beautifully with X3 2nd gen. The transparent and spacious X3 2nd gen complements the warm and bassy signature of IM50 really well. Resulting a full and spacious sounding, powerful bass with clear and full bodied mids, and silky smooth treble. Listening to both DN-2000 and ATH-IM50 paired with Fiio X3 2nd gen, are truly addictive.  

 
 

Previously DX90 was my daily player since last year, now using X3 2nd gen for 2 months somehow I don't feel that I missed my DX90. They have different sound signature, and DX90 still has slightly better transparency and treble sparkles, but X3 2nd gen sound quality is good enough to make me not missing my DX90 for daily commuting. X3 2nd gen smaller size is also more comfortable in the pocket.  

Pairing Fiio X3 2nd gen with portable amplifier Fiio E12DIY (Op-Amp OPA827 + Buffer LME49600), I was simply impressed by how well they drive my Sennheiser HD800. They manage to give body to HD800 mids and bass, while maintaining good detail and transparency. While not really quite up to the level of good tube desktop amp which I prefer for HD800, this small system is good enough that I would confidently bring them around in a headphone meet or local shops to test IEMs and headphones. Recently I brought this pair, X3 2nd gen + E12DIY to a local shop to audition MrSpeakers Ether, and they don't disappoint. They have good tonality, power, with excellent detail and imaging. Impressive!  



 
Testing MrSpeakers Ether at local headphone shop
 

 

 

Comparisons

During the more than 2 months period, I've compared it with other players:
Fiio X3 (1st generation, Ver. 3.3)
Apple iPod 6th Generation 80 GB (Ver. 1.1.2)
iBasso DX90 (Ver. 2.1.0)
Astell&Kern AK100 (Ver. 2.4)  

As for the Fiio X3 2nd gen itself, the latest firmware version I tried for this review is version 1.1.  

Main headphones and earphones used for comparisons:
Audio-Technica MSR-7, Shure SRH840, Yamaha HPH-200, DUNU-DN2000, DUNU-DN-1000, DUNU Titan 1, and ATH-IM50.  

 

Comparison with Fiio X3 (1st generation)

Fiio X3 is using Wolfson WM8740 professional DAC and AD8397 high current op-amp. Fiio X3 2nd gen is using Cirrus Logic's top-flight CS4398 DAC and OPA1642+LMH6643 for the amp section. To me, X3 2nd gen is totally a different player than X3 1st gen. What puts them together is only their price which is within the $300 price bracket. Other than that they don't have many things in common.
 

Most noticeable difference in sound character is the imaging. Switching from X3 to X3 2nd gen I can hear better, and more spacious soundstage, better depth, and clearer instrument separation. X3 soundstage sounds a little flat and congested when compared to X3 2nd gen. The 3D & spacious imaging adds a lot of pleasure in music listening, and probably the best improvement of X3 2nd gen over X3.  

Besides that, X3 2nd gen sounds more transparent than X3, not much, but audible. Nothing wrong with X3 treble, but X3 2nd gen sounds like it has smoother upper treble extension, so treble sounds silky smooth, more airy and transparent. X3 2nd gen has slightly better micro detail, and sound slightly more refined than X3.  

There is also improvement on power efficiency on X3 2nd gen, it doesn't heat up as much as X3. X3 will gets quite warm after sometime, especially when kept in less ventilated place, like in a bag or pocket. So far I didn't have any heat issue with X3 2nd gen, at max it only gets a little warm. Power efficiency seems to be better on X3 2nd gen, smaller battery, yet longer playing hour and less heat. Beside that I also found the navigation is a little easier on X3 2nd gen, requires less button clicks with the scroll wheel.  

 
 
 

Aside from their sound quality, in my opinion, the following are some features of each model that can be considered better than the other:  

X3 1st generation:
1. Analog circuit bass and treble adjustment that sounds good, and works even when playing high resolution PCM and DSD format, where digital EQ of both models doesn't work for DSD, and only works up to 48 kHz PCM.
2. More powerful headphone output.  

X3 2nd generation:
1. Plays DSD 128 and DSD ISO image. Well, practically to me this feature is not very important, but YMMV.
2. More efficient battery consumption, less heat and slightly longer playing time.
3. Scroll wheel for easier navigation.
4. Hibernation mode.
5. Playback from USB OTG storage.  

Both are excellent players in their category. Sound quality wise, both won't disappoint at their price point. Features wise, easy to use and user friendliness, I prefer X3 2nd gen.  

 

Comparison with Apple iPod 6th Generation 80 GB

My iPod is probably too old to be compared with the new X3 2nd gen, but just for comparison sake I will write a brief comparison between them.
 

The 2 x 30mW iPod headphone output is no match for the X3 2nd gen more powerful headphone output. X3 2nd gen has better driving power, bass has better texture, tighter, and punchier than iPod. Fiio X3 2nd gen also has better detail and faster transient. Upper treble is more extended on X3 2nd gen, and overall sounds more transparent than iPod.  

I used my iPod classic for years, and it is more or less retired early last year. It is a nice sounding player, smooth, polite, with friendly sound characteristic, but it is rather too old, and doesn't offer many features as compared to modern players. Limited playable formats, no line output, no USB DAC function, etc. But I think iPod has better UI, and especially the automatic playlists, the recently added, recently played, and Top 25 most played playlists are quite useful.  

Size comparison with Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPod classic 6th gen.
 

 

Comparison with Astell&Kern AK100 (first generation)

AK100 20 ohms output impedance might not be suitable for some multi drivers IEMs, so for fair comparison, I mostly use single driver IEM, but also tried the DN-1000 and DN-2000 hybrid just for comparison. For example, DUNU DN-2000 has wonderful matching with X3 2nd gen, it sounds transparent and holographic, with excellent detail. on AK100, DN-2000 bass is slightly boosted, and treble level is slightly less than X3 2nd gen. Overall still sounds balanced and enjoyable, and I do like AK100 pairing with DN-2000. With DN-1000, the difference is even more audible, as DN-1000 starting to lose its transparency on AK100.
The difference is quite audible between X3 2nd gen & AK100 when comparing them using multi driver IEM.
 

Operation wise, X3 2nd gen feels quicker and more responsive than AK100. Probably due to simpler OS and the lack of touch screen. As for the size, AK100 is smaller. About similar width and thickness, but much shorter.  

AK100 sounds warmer and a little smoother than X3 2nd gen. AK100 also has slightly stronger and fuller bass presence. While X3 2nd gen sounds more transparent and open sounding. Vocal sounds fuller and more intimate on AK100, and overall I do prefer the smooth and intimate vocal on AK100 for pop music. If you like open sounding vocal, X3 2nd gen vocal sounds a tad more open and transparent. But the difference is not much. I also notice that the perceived transient is slightly faster on X3 2nd gen. Both have good imaging, with excellent detail and dynamic. Though the price difference is quite high here, IMHO X3 2nd gen doesn't sound inferior to AK100. They do have different character, but I don't hear one player to be inferior to the other. It is all depending on personal preferences, as well as matching the right earphone to the player. For example with ATH-IM50, X3 2nd gen transparent signature really helps to balance the warm and bassy signature of the IM50, in this case, better than AK100. While AK100 might be better on other pairing. In general, those who like smooth & warm character with stronger bass will find AK100 is preferable, while those who prefer transparency will find X3 2nd gen is really a good deal.  

 

Comparison with iBasso DX90

DX90 sounds a little more transparent and powerful than X3 2nd gen, with better dynamic. DX90 treble sounds more extended with more treble sparkles. It also makes DX90 a little more prone to sibilant as compared to X3 2nd gen. Bass punches harder and fuller on DX90. Both the sparkling treble and more powerful bass make DX90 sounds livelier. But vocal sounds a little smoother on X3 2nd gen, less grain, more focused and rounded. Sometime I do like vocal of the X3 2nd gen a little better than DX90, especially with matching IEMs such as DN-2000 and ATH-IM50. DX90 vocal may sounds a little sharp and grainy sometime. But again it comes back to matching. With smooth sounding full size headphones like my new ATH-R70x, DX90 sounds better, more open sounding with better detail.
 

Soundstage presentation is rather different between the two. DX90 imaging is perceived wider, while X3 2nd gen is perceived deeper. Both have excellent capability to produce 3D holographic imaging.  

I observed that sound quality between low and high gain on X3 2nd gen is quite consistent. While on DX90 I always set it to high gain due to noticeably better sound quality at high gain. DX90 sounds tighter with better driving capability at high gain.  

Though in general, I feel that DX90 is still a better sounding player, but the difference is not night and day despite of the double price. And X3 2nd gen comes pretty close.  


Size comparison with AK100 & DX90:
 
 
 
 

 

 

Features & Measurement

 

Fiio has listed most of the features of X3 2nd gen here:
http://www.fiio.net/en/products/39
 
The following are some of the features I would like to highlight or have been tested.  

Line Output & SPDIF Coaxial Output

Beside the headphone output, there is a switchable multi-function output, for analogue line output and digital SPDIF coaxial output. Selection is done in system settings menu. Headphone output is disconnected when line output or SPDIF output is connected.
 

 
 

Line output level is fix at 1.45 Vrms (measured 1.46 Vrms), bypassing the digital volume control and digital equalizer. Probably due to the limitation of the battery voltage, the level is slightly below the standard 2 Vrms for line output. Some users provided feedback that it would be nice if there is an option to enable variable gain and equalizer for the line output.  

SPDIF coaxial output connector pin assignment is different than the X3 and iBasso DX90. That means, we cannot use SPDIF cable from X3, for the X3 2nd gen SPDIF output. Older X3 and DX90 use the Tip and Shield of the 3.5 mm connector for SPDIF output. X3 2nd gen use the 4 poles TRRS 3.5 mm connector. From the Tip, Ring 1, Ring 2, & Shield (TRRS), X3 2nd gen SPDIF output uses the Ring 2 and Shield poles. Ring 2 connected to the ground or shield of the RCA connector, while the Shield pole of the 3.5 mm connected to the Tip of the RCA connector. So it is similar to CTIA standard for TRRS phone connector, the SPDIF coaxial output uses the microphone pole for the SPDIF signal. The new arrangement is quite make sense, since the SPDIF is sharing the same port with the line output.  

 
 

The SPDIF coaxial output works for all PCM sampling rates from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, including 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz. SPDIF output sampling frequency follows the sampling frequency of the audio file.  

The interesting part of the SPDIF output is when X3 2nd gen playing DSD64 files. Instead of muting, the SPDIF output will output 88.2 kHz PCM signal, converted from the DSD64 files. So X3 2nd gen functions as DSD to PCM converter. Brilliant! But please take note, DSD128 is not supported by the SPDIF output, therefore when the multi-function output is set to 'Coax Out', DSD128 files are not playable. In order to play DSD128, the output must be set to Line Out.  

 
 

CTIA Inline Remote

Another interesting feature is the compatibility with inline remote. Using earphones or IEMs with microphone and inline remote, the remote middle answer button functions as the following on X3 2nd gen:
1 click: Play or stop
2 clicks: Next song
3 clicks: Previous song
 

Please take note, X3 2nd gen only supports the more common CTIA standard, not the less common OMTP headphone jack standard. More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)
 
 

USB DAC & USB OTG

Beside a standalone player, X3 2nd gen also functions as USB DAC. All PCM sampling rates from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz are supported, including DSD64 format. DSD128 is not supported in DAC mode. Probably not yet. DSD playback method in foobar is using the common DoP Marker setting.
 

 
 
 

The micro B USB port also supports USB OTG storage. Using the common USB OTG cable for Android smartphone or tablet, X3 2nd gen can access flash storage connected to the OTG cable. I tested PNY 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive (formatted in exFAT), as well as Transcend USB 3.0 card reader to read micro SD, so far the OTG function works well. This feature is quite useful especially if we have a full micro SD in the player, but want to try some audio files with the player. Simply copy the files to a flash drive, and plug it to the OTG cable.  

 
 

Storage

Officially supported file format is FAT32, up to 128GB maximum capacity, and it is recommended to use the player to format the micro SD card. Nevertheless, I found that X3 2nd generation (firmware v1.1) supports exFAT file system as well. At the time of this review, I haven't seen this feature mentioned on Fiio website, but I have tested both 64GB micro SD and 128GB USB flash drive connected using OTG cable, both formatted in exFAT, and both were supported by X3 2nd gen. I have tested exFAT cluster size 32kb, 128kb, and 256kb, all work. Though during testing, exFAT file system works fine most of the time, but some users reported that occasionally they have issues playing 24/192 PCM files and DSD files from exFAT storage. exFAT support is probably still in early stage and need further development, but this is a good sign to support larger storage in the future.
 

 

Media Library

The media library scanning is quite fast, faster than DX90 and AK100. It scans 1114 songs in about 21 seconds. Currently, with firmware 1.1, media library maximum capacity is 5800 songs. Not sure if the capacity will be expanded in future firmware update, but IMHO, 5800 is generally sufficient for 64GB storage. With 64 GB micro SD, in average we could use around 59.5 GB of storage space. Averaging some of my collection, around 2739 songs, a mixture of MP3 320kbps & AAC 512kbps, resulting an approximate of 11 MB file size per song. It means, for high quality lossy formats, 59.5 GB could hold around 5400 songs. Most of my songs are in FLAC format (mixture of standard and high resolution), which is in average around 4-5 times larger than 320 kbps MP3 file. Therefore the 5800 songs of media library capacity is quite sufficient for 64 GB storage, especially for mixture of lossy and lossless formats. But when 128 GB is getting cheaper and more popular, it might not be enough for a collection with mostly lossy formats.
 

But please take note, that this 5800 capacity is 'Media Library' capacity, and not X3 2nd gen file browsing capacity. The file browser is not limited by the media library capacity. We can have 128GB storage with much more than 5800 songs, and we can browse them all using the file browsing feature. Since most of my song collections are folder organized, I never used the media library so far, and always use file browser to select songs. So the 5800 limitation is not relevant if we browse our songs using file browser. But I could imagine if in the future the playlist management has been much improved, more will start using the media library function, and with 128GB storage, the 5800 capacity will need to be expanded.  

 

File Formats

Tested the following file formats & sampling rate, except the DXD format, all are playable, including DSD files, both DSF and DFF format, in both DSD64 and DSD128 resolution.
 

 
 
 
 

CD & SACD Image

Supporting various common audio formats is probably not something unique these days, but playing CD images and SACD ISO images directly from the player is not what many portable players claim able to do. This is especially useful for those who backup their collection of CDs and SACDs as images.
 

I've tested the following CD images format:
CD_Image.ape + CD_Image.cue
CD_Image.flac + CD_Image.cue
CD_Image.wav + CD_Image.cue  

 

All are playable on X3 2nd gen. Only gapless playback on CD image is still not perfect, with a very short, probably around 0.3-0.4 second gap. Hopefully future firmware upgrade will fix it.  

The neat way to organize the image files is probably to put each of the image file in a separate folder, with proper naming. But we have the option to put all the CD images together in the same folder. The displayed artwork for the CD Image playback will follow the file name of the CD image file. So just name the artwork jpeg files accordingly, with the same file name as the associated CD image, and X3 2nd gen will display the artwork accordingly.  

 
 
 
 

Also tested SACD ISO image that was placed in a folder together with artwork jpeg file with different file name, and X3 2nd gen has no problem displaying the artwork file while playing the SACD ISO file.  

Please take note some of the following limitations for DSD playback. Some SACD ISO images might be in DST format (compressed DSD) and is not supported by X3 2nd gen. The solution is to convert the ISO image to DFF files, with DST to DSD conversion option selected. When I found some the SACD ISO images were not playable by X3 2nd gen, I was not aware of the DST codec. I have to thank @WayneWoondirts for the tips to check the DST codec! ISO image in DST format may be converted to DFF files using Sonore ISO2DSD (freeware). The other limitation is surround DSD files. Fiio X3 2nd gen is a stereo player, meaning DSD 5.0 and 5.1 files are not supported. Only 2.0 DSD file is supported.  

 

Display Quality & User Interface

There is not much improvement for the LCD display from previous X3, most probably to keep the cost low. But I do hope that in the next generation X3, Fiio would improve the quality of the LCD display, especially to improve the contrast & resolution. It is difficult to use the display in bright outdoor condition. And it would be nice to have higher resolution display.
 

 
 

In my opinion, the new wheel navigation is preferable over the buttons navigation on the old X3. The X3 2nd gen wheel and buttons arrangement are quite intuitive and easy to use. User interface has also been improved and quite user friendly.  

What I would like to be improved is the back button behaviour and playlist management.  

1. I prefer for the back button to have the following behaviour:
Short click from the currently playing song is dedicated to always bring back one level up to the song file directory, or one level up of the playlist hierarchy, for example back to the list of songs in the album.
Currently, once we long press the back button to go to the home menu, when we go back to the currently playing song, when we short click the back button, it won't bring us back to the song's folder or album, but goes back to home menu.  

2. Automatic playlists such as:
Recently played:
Songs; Albums; Folders; Artists
Most frequently played:
Songs; Albums; Folders; Artists
Recently added:
Songs; Albums; Folders; Artists  

Something like this:
 
 

Equalizer

Equalizer is standard 10 bands digital equalizer with +/- 6 dB adjustment. Equalizer only works for PCM files with sampling rate 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. It doesn't function for higher sampling rate and DSD files. When EQ is on, it reduces the whole level by 6 dB to provide a 6 dB headroom for EQ adjustment.
 

 
 

This is quite a common implementation in today's digital audio players. I would like to suggest a slightly different approach to Fiio (and other vendors). I suggest integrating the digital volume and the digital equalizer, so headroom calculation can be done in an integrated manner. Instead of cutting the volume by 6 dB immediately when EQ is activated, why not just reduce the maximum volume instead. For example, if maximum volume is let say 18 dB without EQ, when EQ is activated maximum volume is reduced to 12 dB max, providing the 6 dB headroom for EQ. The digital volume control is limited to 12 at max when EQ is activated, instead of 18 dB max without EQ. The reason is, when using IEMs, we seldom use near the maximum volume, so there will be some headroom from digital volume control that can be used for EQ. When EQ is activated, users don't have to experience that the overall volume is reduced, because EQ is using the leftover headroom from the digital volume control. Only the maximum level of the volume control is reduced when EQ is activated. In headroom calculation, it might looks the same, but different user experience, since user no longer has to adjust the volume when activating EQ.  

For example, maximum volume of X3 2nd gen is at level 120, and -6 dB from maximum is at level 108 (the same for both high and low gain). So, just make it that when equalizer is enabled, reduce the ceiling of maximum volume level from 120 to 108. Most of the time my listening volume with my IEMs, DN-2000, DN-1000, ATH-IM50 are only in the range from 40 to 70. If the ceiling of max volume is lowered from 120 to 108, it is not affecting the playback volume, and I don't have to adjust the volume when enabling equalizer. My 2 cents  

 

Power Management and Battery

Mentioned earlier, the newly implemented sleep / hibernation feature is a very welcomed feature. Sleep when idle can be set between 1 to 8 minutes. Sleep mode is indicated by blue LED. The LED will turn off when in sleep mode, and the player consumes less than 5 mW of battery power. To activate the player, press the power button.
 

From my experience, battery life is pretty good. Though battery life varies by many factors, with more than 2 months of almost daily use, I don't feel the battery capacity is lacking.  

X3 2nd gen uses similar 0.8 mm P2 pentalobe screws to those found on the iPhone 4. Using the pentalobe screwdriver from generic smartphone tool kit, we can open the back of the X3 2nd gen. Pictures below shown the battery and circuit board or the X3 2nd gen. The battery seems to be removable.  

 
 
 
DIY expert might know how to open the battery connector.
 
 

EMI Rejection

As mentioned earlier, the X3 2nd gen all-metal chassis design has improved the EMI rejection from the first generation X3. X3 also has metal chassis, but EMI rejection is not as good as the X3 2nd gen. Using X3 2nd gen, now I'm no longer annoyed by EMI when holding the audio player side by side with my smartphone.
 

The following video is showing a simple EMI test using the base of home DECT phone. The base of DECT phone is transmitting consistent radio signal, that easily interfered audio players on close distant. A simple electromagnetic transmitter for EMI test.  

 
 

The test setup is simple:
4 players: Fiio X3, Fiio X3 2nd gen, iBasso DX90, & Astell&Kern AK100.
All players were set to high gain (except AK100 which doesn't have gain adjustment), and the volume was set to 0.5 Vrms when playing 0 dBFS 100 Hz sine wave. So output level were equal.
During the test all players were playing silent track.
Headphone output of DUT (Device Under Test) connected to Line Input 1 (Left) and 2 (Right) of Zoom H6, gain set to 7.
Zoom H6 headphone output connected to a small active speaker (Creative Woof), to monitor the sound of the EMI noise.
Video recording was using Panasonic DMC-FZ1000. Sound in the video was recorded from the speaker sound using the FZ1000 build-in mic. No audio post processing.  

http://youtu.be/OQsoGI-uzYE

 

From the Zoom H6 recorded file, we can see that Fiio X3 2nd gen has the best EMI immunity from other players in the test.  

 
 

Headphone Output

The following is some measurement of the headphone output. I don't have lab grade accuracy measurement instruments, or dedicated audio analyzer, so the measurement result should be taken as estimated value.
 

Low gain maximum output voltage at 600 ohms: 1.345 Vrms / 3.8 Vpp
High gain maximum output voltage at 600 ohms: 2.69 Vrms / 7.6 Vpp  

Low gain output impedance: 0.34 ohm
High gain output impedance: 0.39 ohm  

 
 

Measured power output:

My digital oscilloscope doesn't do THD measurement, but it has FFT feature. Power output criteria is maximum output at less than 1% THD. To estimate the maximum output voltage before the waveform get distorted, I visually monitor the waveform on oscilloscope, and monitor the FFT window to keep the harmonic distortion is less than 40 dB (100 times) from the main frequency.
 

Maximum volume before distortion, at 20Hz & 200Hz on 15 ohms load (at volume 106 - high gain):
 
 
 

Waveform started to get distorted, at 20Hz & 200Hz on 15 ohms load (at volume 107 - high gain):
 
 
 

For low impedance load, I made a custom cable as shown below, where the load is connected using 4 pins XLR. This way I can use the cable with various load, including balanced headphone.  

 
 

Maximum output voltage at high gain, at 15 ohms load:
At 20 Hz: 1.157 Vrms (volume @ 106)
At 200 Hz: 1.167 Vrms (volume @ 106)
Average: 1.162 Vrms
Maximum current at 15 ohms load: 1.162 / 15 = 77.5 mA  

Maximum output voltage (Vrms) at high gain, at 600 ohms load: 2.69 Vrms  

Calculated maximum power output @ 32 ohms: 192 mW
Calculated maximum power output @ 300 ohms: 24 mW  

 

Line Output:

Measured output impedance: 99 ohms
Measured maximum output voltage: 1.46 Vrms
Line output is fix gain, bypassing the digital volume control and digital equalizer.
 

 

RMAA Test Results

Audio interface for RMAA test is using HRT LineStreamer+. HRT LineStreamer+ doesn't have any gain at the input stage, so it is a direct connection to the ADC stage, at 24bit-96kHz sampling rate. Line output is connected directly to HRT LS line input as shown below, while headphone output is connected with 600 ohms load (different cable).
 

 
 

Please take note:

RMAA test is only as good as the quality of the audio interface used for the measurement. And in most cases, only useful for verification purpose of the audio quality within the 20Hz to 20 kHz range. For example, most audio interface line input only have linear frequency response up to around 20 kHz, if I measure an amplifier with flat frequency response up to 100 kHz (which is common), RMAA test result will only shows frequency response up to 20 kHz. In this case RMAA test result doesn't reflect the frequency response of the amplifier under test, but the frequency response of the line input of the audio interface. Besides that, noise and total harmonic distortion result are also affected by the performance of the line input interface, which in many cases has inferior specification than the tested unit. Once again please take note, RMAA test is only for verification purpose, and not accurately reflecting the real specification of the equipment.
 

Sampling mode: 24-bit, 96 kHz
Fiio X3 2nd Generation Outputs: Line Output, Headphone Output at Low Gain & High Gain.



 
The frequency response (FR) graph is pretty close to the official FR graph published by Fiio. The HRT LineStreamer+ FR is 20Hz-20kHz in +0 / -.4 dB tolerance, so won't get better result than that even if the player FR is flatter. From the individual output result, I don't see any issue with channel imbalance. Output level balance between Left and Right channels is good.  

 

 

That concludes my Fiio X3 2nd generation review. It is a wonderful audio player, very reasonably priced, with performance that exceeds many other players in the category. Congrats to Fiio!



 
   

 

Additional pictures:

 

Accessories:
 
Fiio X3 2nd gen comes with silicon protection case and screen protector. One of the screen protector already applied to the player from factory.  

 

User Guide:
 
 
 

System Settings:
 
 
 
 

Play Settings:
 
 
 

Equipment used in this review:

 

Headphones:
Audio-Technica ATH-R70x
Audio-Technica MSR7LTD
Audio-Technica M50
Philips Fidelio X1
Philips SHP9500
Sennheiser HD 800
Shure SRH840
Yamaha HPH-200
 

Earphones / IEMs:
Audio-Technica ATH-IM50
Audio-Technica ATH-IM70
DUNU DN-1000
DUNU DN-2000
DUNU Titan 1  

DAPs, DACs & Headphone Amplifiers:
Apple iPod Classic 6th gen 80GB
Astell&Kern AK100 (loan)
Fiio X3
Fiio X3 2nd gen
Fiio E12DIY (Op-Amp OPA827 + Buffer LME49600)
iBasso DX90
ifi micro iDSD (firmware 4.06)
Mytek Stereo192-DSD  

Computer & Player:
DIY Desktop PC: Gigabyte GA-H77-D3H-MVP motherboard, Intel i7-3770, 16 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1.
foobar2000 v1.3.3  

Measurement & Other Instrument:
Amprobe Digital Multimeter AM-160
Amprobe Pocket Meter PM51A
Owon VDS3102 Digital Storage Oscilloscope
Velleman PCSU 200 PC Scope & Generator
Zoom H6  

 

Some recordings used in this review:

 

I just bought this recently and so far  I am very impressed by the quality of this unit. It's a very capable unit capable of many things other than just playing music. The DAC mode is good for anybody wanting to upgrade their sound interface on a laptop. There is 4 ways of output,USB device into PC/Music system, headphone (Low and High Gain) and Line Out and Digital Coax options. It is also capable of decoding DSD in file format using DSF downloads at 2.8Mhz/5.6MHz (64/128 fs) or SACD ISO files through software or on the device itself. Although I haven't been able to try the latter as yet.
 
The UI is a little basic to say the least however it does what it says on the tin. It shouldn't take long to learn however this is no iOS or Android (technically it is) interface in appearance, it seems more like a Symbian environment without the Java. When you just want to play music you shouldn't need too many options. There's not much in the way control although it does feature an equaliser, stereo balance and favourites tool for keeping your best tunes in the one place.
 
You can research the parts such as the DAC and Amplifier components elsewhere. A quick summary would be it will drive a lot of headphones such as sensitive IEM to Studio reference headphones under the $500 bracket with no issues. The stated range is up to 150 Ohm headphone resistance which will cover a lot of options. I tried my Shure SE425 IEM with them and the sufficient gain really makes them shine. Also gone is the electronics hiss I was getting from my mobile phone. Then I tried my AKG K702 on High Gain which use 62 Ohm and 200mW drivers and is harder to drive due the AKG driver design although it's clean and impressive for a small player.
 
Music auditioned:
 
Pink Floyd - The Endless River (24/96 FLAC)
Chase 'n' Status - No More Idols (160K MP3)
The Orb - Blue Room (40 Minute mix - 128K MP3)
No Doubt (256K M4A)
Emeli Sandé (320K MP3)
 
and some other FLAC 44.1K/16 bit encodes direct from my CD collection.
 
To create some DSD files I used Cakewalk Sonar Platinum which exports 1-bit 2.8Mhz/5.6Mhz formats by using the SSE3 found on CPU processors. This information was given to me by the CTO Noel Borthwick although the actual DSP codec was created by someone at Tascam.
 
If you do prefer your other music interface then you can use it as a DAC and bind them together with a USB OTG cable which will turn your mobile device into a portable hi-fi device, if you don't mind the chunkiness. There is a few options of connection and is compatible with Windows 7 onwards and Mac OS X. I'm not sure about Linux however there is always a workaround there.
 
 
So would I recommend it?
 
Yes, if you don't mind the fact it has no internal memory and relies on external SD. Officially you are restricted to 128GB although maybe this limit will be lifted when more Fiio products become available. The next model up X5/X5 ii offer two slots meaning you double the potential and a slightly improved amplifier stage. I can't fault it for the majority of things I have currently thrown at it. The TF/SD card slot threw me at first. The picture shows a straight insert of the memory card however the actual insertion requires snapping the card in at an angle.
 
 
To summarise, this is a great piece of kit and great introduction to the world of high-end portable players.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Usability and Ergonomics
• Sound Quality
  • How does it pair with certain headphones?
  • How does it compare to other audio gear?
• For whom is this player good for?
• Conclusion

 
(Before I even begin the disclaimer, I want to warn and apologize to the reader that my review will be long. Thus, you can click on the table of contents above to jump to whichever section you want. I’ll also include a summary tl;dr summary at the beginning of each section.)  
 
Introduction
 
Tl;dr: Just stating FiiO lent me the unit and some of my personal history.
 
Before I begin my review, I would like to thank Joe Bloggs and the rest of the team at FiiO for providing an X3 2^nd gen loan unit for 10 days to review. FiiO has not paid me whatsoever in the making of this review, and is only asking for my honest opinion. I actually think this says a lot about them – they’re confident that they’ve made a good product, and don’t need to pay people off for them to say good things.
 
And you know what, they absolutely have every reason to think so.
 
Before I get into why the X3 2^nd gen is a great product, I’d like to explain a bit of my audiophile background and how it specifically relates to FiiO. I actually began my journey with FiiO – their E7 portable DAC/amp combo was the first real piece of audio gear (besides headphones) that I bought. I thought that it sounded so good that soon not long after their E17 came out, I bought that as well and used it for the next year or so. However, after listening to other people’s gear, I started to notice what was missing from my FiiO gear and how my tastes in sound signature was changing. My E17 started to sound a bit too dark for my tastes. This was what caused me to stay away from FiiO entirely for a while.
Fast forward a year or two later. I wanted a good-sounding portable device because my smartphone just wasn’t cutting it. So I started to look at DAPs, and specifically noticed that FiiO had branched into there. I still had a soft spot for FiiO because they were my introduction into the audiophile world, so I thought “why not?” and sought out to somehow audition the X5. And when I did – I was impressed. FiiO had come a long way in making their stuff sound so much better. So when I saw that FiiO was planning a tour for the new X3, I immediately jumped at the chance.
 
Needless to say, after my experience with the X5 I had high expectations for the X3.
 
 
 
 
Usability and Ergonomics
 
Tl;dr: Great ergonomics and responsive UI. Good battery life. Screen is hard to read under sunlight. Some glitches with the firmware and USB DAC driver.
 
I’m not going to spend too much time in this section, mainly because the many other reviews have already done an excellent job of covering these aspects. However, I will comment on several things that jumped out to me.
First are the in-line controls. They pretty much worked flawlessly as advertised and without much delay (like half a second after my button presses), using my Klipsch ProMedia In-Ear, which only has a single button to the mic. These controls are very convenient for whomever happens to have such an IEM or headphone with these controls, as it literally allows you to do all of the playing functions without ever taking the X3 out of your pocket, or bag, or whatever have you.
 
Second is the responsive UI. The X3 pretty much flies through its menus very quickly without hiccups. Playing even DSD files doesn’t elicit much, if at all, of a slowdown from the X3. And I remember the X5, when I auditioned it, sometimes could not keep up with the user changing the volume too quickly using the scroll wheel (this may have been changed with later firmware). Not so with the X3 – it always changed the volume as fast as I could spin the wheel. Also, the “deep hibernation” mode works flawlessly – it’s really convenient having the player pretty much boot up instantly after putting itself into a power conservation mode. And even if you don’t use that feature, I find that a full boot-up of the X3 2^nd gen doesn’t take all that long – certainly a lot faster than the Android smartphones that I’m used to.
 
Third are the great ergonomics and feel in the hand. For anybody who is wondering how on earth does putting the power button and the volume buttons on the same side and relatively close to each other work, FiiO has got you covered. One, the power button is spaced out enough so that it sits by its lonesome so that one is not likely to mistake it for the volume buttons. Two, the power button is nearly flush to the body of the X3 2^nd gen while the volume buttons are significantly raised up. I find it hard to believe that people will mistake the power and volume buttons with these design considerations. I also find that indicating which button is the volume up button by putting a slight protruding point on it is a nice touch.
 
 
However, not all is good with the X3 2^nd gen here. The major thing that I’m not happy about is that the volume buttons stop working under certain conditions. (This isn’t fixed as of firmware version 1.1.) I’m not sure how to exactly cause this bug, but under certain conditions the volume buttons will simply just stop working, or, in other cases, allow you to only change the volume for a few steps before it stops working. A reboot of the player solves this, and holding down the center button will always allow you to change the volume with the scroll wheel, but it is annoying.
 
Also, while the screen is actually better than I thought because it’s reasonably sharp, it lacks contrast and viewing angles aren’t great. This doesn’t really matter because I’m not constantly looking at the screen of a DAP. But the fact that even with max brightness, I can’t really see the screen even under moderate sunlight does matter.
 
A quick word on the USB DAC functionality – it pretty much works flawlessly, with the exception of a bug that I found using Windows 8.1. Setting up the drivers was not difficult and even setting up DSD playback in Foobar2000 was not too difficult. However, there is a bug to the drivers that I can consistently reproduce – if you try playing DSD using Foobar2000 in actual DSD mode, and then attempt to switch to playing the same DSD track except converting it to 176.4 kHz PCM, the music will start to dropout and stutter. The only way to really solve this is to unplug the X3 2^nd gen from the USB port and then plug it back in. This is not a huge deal for most users, but I thought I should mention it.
 
As for battery life, I’ll just mention that I clocked the X3 2^nd gen being able to run nine hours. This was with it playing a mix of CD quality, high-resolution PCM (24 bit 48 kHz files and above), and DSD files, driving my 35 ohm impedance HiFiMAN HE-400i on low gain at a volume of 73/120. Seems pretty decent to me, no?
 
Sound Quality
 
Tl;dr: The X3’s overall sound signature allows it to pair well with lots of different headphones. It doesn’t sound underpowered even with full size headphones. For some headphones, the sound on the X3 is good as it gets short of using expensive desktop equipment. The X3 compares well to lots of portable devices and even does well against desktop equipment in its price range.
 
We now get to the juicy part of the review. How does the X3 2^nd gen sound like?
 
I would classify the sound signature as very neutral, with perhaps a (very) slight dark tilt. In my opinion, the neutral sound signature allows it to pair very well with warmer sounding headphones and IEMs. The slight dark tilt also allows brighter sounding headphones to be less fatiguing without taking away their fundamental character (I like my sparkle in the treble, so this is good for me). To me, FiiO has somehow managed to infuse the X3 2^nd gen with a sound signature that pairs well with just about any common sound signature you can find in a pair of headphones/IEMs.
 
Soundstage is of about medium width, and with really good depth that allows headphones with good layering capabilities to shine (it’s about as good as a $200 product can get). Imaging is also pretty good on the unit – this is due to the previously-mentioned good depth, and because of pretty decent separation between instruments. There’s no smearing at all between instruments when playing complex music on the X3 2^nd gen, and even slight details cleanly come through.
 
I also find the X3 2^nd gen to have a somewhat aggressive kind of sound, and not laid-back. By this, I mean that the X3 2^nd gen really emphasizes the differences in dynamic range, and somewhat pushes the music to be in front of you. So the music is punchy and is somewhat forward on the X3 2^nd gen. But it’s not to the point where I would find the X3 2^nd gen to be fatiguing to listen to for long periods of time.
 
How does it pair with certain headphones?
 
I used the following headphones/IEMs to test out the X3 2^nd gen: Klipsch Image X10, Sennheiser HD598, Sennheiser HD700, HiFiMAN HE-400i, and Fostex T50RP (self-modded).
 
With the Image X10:
 
 
The X3 2^nd gen really nicely brings out the body in the bass of the Image X10. But it doesn’t do this at the expense of the mids and treble – which I find the X3 2^nd gen to also bring out nicely without being drowned out by the bass, and handles with finesse. This is an example of how I mentioned earlier that the neutral sound signature of the X3 2^nd gen pairs well with warmer sounding IEMs like the X10. The X10 is not among the most highly sensitive IEMs, and will definitely respond to good amping. The X3 2^nd gen provides enough clean power that I can definitely hear the differences between it and other portable music devices when using the X10 – mainly, this is by giving the mids and trebles a smoother but yet more defined character that lesser audio gear can’t do to my X10. In fact, using the X3 2^nd gen I’m not sure how much better the X10 can sound without resorting to much more expensive desktop setups that cost much more than the X10 itself (yes, I have actually listened to the X10 on my much more expensive desktop gear).
 
With the HD598:
 
 
In my opinion, the X3 2^nd gen pairs wonderfully with the HD598. I think the HD598 has a slightly bright character, and so the very slightly dark but overall neutral nature of the X3 2^nd gen allows the mids and highs of the HD598 to shine without it becoming fatiguing at all). The X3 2^nd gen is definitely not underpowered when it comes to driving the HD598 – there’s no real graininess to the mids and highs, and really allows music with great dynamic range to come through powerfully. While the medium width soundstage of the X3 2^nd gen doesn’t allow to HD598 to fully present that expansive soundstage, the great depth of the X3 2^nd gen allows the layering capabilities of the HD598 to really shine. The very good imaging capabilities of the HD598 also shine with the X3 2^nd gen since the DAP is able to do a great job at separating instruments and putting them together in a coherent soundstage. The only thing that I may even have a complaint about is that the X3 2^nd gen doesn’t fully bring out the last bit of bass from the HD598, but again that’s only possible with expensive desktop equipment that costs much more than the headphone itself. In fact, that’s a pretty good summary of how the HD598 sounds on the X3 2^nd gen – it’s not going to get much better than this unless you use something crazy expensive.
 
With the HD700:
 
 
How well does the X3 2^nd gen drive the HD700, which costs much more than the DAP itself and being rated at 150 ohms is the limit of what the X3 2^nd gen is rated for? Surprisingly well, in fact. The slightly dark character of the X3’s sound really takes the edge off of the HD700’s treble and makes it a far less fatiguing listen – but it won’t transform the HD700 into an entirely different headphone. Bass and dynamic range also come nicely through the X3 2^nd gen, but one can only still squeeze that last bit of depth and body to the bass using desktop equipment. Mids and highs also come through quite nicely, though it lacks that last bit of extension and refinement that again, only much more expensive equipment can provide. Details are also plentiful with the X3/HD700 combo. The soundstage width and depth of the HD700 through the X3 2^nd gen is definitely reduced compared to desktop gear, but is still good enough to allow the excellent imaging, layering, and coherency of the HD700’s soundstage to come through. Overall, I am pretty happy with the X3 2^nd gen powering the HD700 despite having heard how it sounds on more expensive gear.
 
With the HiFiMAN HE-400i:
 
 
We have here a planar magnetic headphone, though it is one the easier ones to drive. So how does the X3 2^nd gen fare with the HE-400i? Actually pretty dang well, I’d say. While the bass of the 400i with the X3 2^nd gen doesn’t hit as deep as with a desktop amplifier, it still has plenty of body and sounds very satisfying. The neutral nature of the X3 2^nd gen also allows the great mids and highs of the 400i to shine, but they are a bit unrefined compared to more expensive desktop equipment. Vocals especially sound a tiny bit raspy and bright compared to the best I’ve heard the 400i in – but it’s far from being unsatisfying. The great depth and imaging (due to the good separation and decently wide sound stage the X3 gives the headphone) of the 400i is apparent with paired with the X3 2^nd gen – a plus in my book. All in all, the X3 2^nd gen doesn’t really sound underpowered with the 400i – especially if you don’t compare it to much more expensive equipment. This pairing truly is a satisfying experience, even though I usually use much more expensive gear to drive the HE-400i.
 
With the modded Fostex T50RP:
 
 
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much out of this combo – how could a portable device be able to really drive the T50RP, when modded craves lots of power? However, the X3 2^nd gen pleasantly surprised me by pairing relatively well to the T50RP. The mids and highs were definitely a bit grainy compared to listening on higher-end desktop equipment but not so much as to suggest that the T50RP was woefully underpowered, and bass seemed a bit boomy by being able to only draw out the mid-bass and not as much of the sub-bass. However, the X3 2^nd gen still allowed the Fostex to retain its good imaging and separation, and didn’t really make the soundstage any smaller than it already is. And like with the Klipsch Image X10, the X3’s neutral signature paired well with the darker nature of my modded T50RP so that the sound had plenty of body and lower range emphasis but retained just enough sparkle in the treble to make for a captivating listening experience.
 
If what I just said makes it sound like the modded Fostex T50RP sounds like total crap on the X3 2^nd gen, it doesn’t. To really convey how impressed I am that the $200 X3 2^nd gen can drive the T50RP, let me offer the following anecdote: I’ve actually listened to my modded T50RP through the Sony NWZ-ZX2 and AK100ii. I distinctly remember feeling that both of those DAPs were underpowered because they made the mids and highs on the T50RP sound somewhat hazy and grainy. The X3 2^nd gen from my experience does not suffer from this. Enough said.
 
How does it compare to other audio gear?
 
These are the other amp and DACs that I had on hand to compare to the X3 2^nd gen: Sony Walkman NWZ-S716F, HTC One M7, FiiO E17, and Aune T1 mk1.
 
Vs. the Sony Walkman NWZ-S716F (tiny little DAP)
 
 
First off, let’s get this out of the way: the X3 2^nd gen simply has a lot more driving power than the tiny Walkman. The Walkman somewhat struggles at making the HD598 sound really good while the X3 makes even the modded T50RP sound not half bad.
 
Thus, my comparisons between the X3 and the Walkman are solely based on using my Klipsch X10. Overall, the sound on the Walkman is more hazy and blurred. For example, drum cymbal hits are “splashy” and all smeared together on the Walkman, while they are clearly distinct and sharp without going overboard on the X3 2^nd gen. Imaging is better, and the soundstage is much better on the X3 – there’s really no contest here. One can pick out the ambient cues and listen to the ambience of the recording room much better on the X3. Vocals are smoother and more defined on the X3. The bass on the X3 actually seems to punch less hard than on the Walkman, but in return the X3 provides bass that has more body and is more textured.
 
Vs. the HTC One M7 (high-end, very good audio quality smartphone)
 
 
Surprisingly, I would say that the M7 and the X3 have a similar amount of driving power – they both can drive cans like the X10 and the HD598 fine, and do a decent (but not the best) job at driving the HD700, HE-400i, and the modded T50RP. As for sound signature, the X3 is slightly brighter than the M7. However, despite being brighter, I find that the X3 somehow gives everything from vocals to guitars that extra bit of weight that makes it sound that more realistic than the M7. The level of detail presented between the two devices is surprisingly about the same – but this is not a knock to the X3, since I find the M7 to actually have a good amount of detail. The mids and treble on the M7 are perhaps a bit fuzzier and more unrefined than the X3, but it is a noticeable difference. The X3 also seems to be able to better portray dynamic range than the M7 – which gives the X3 the edge in classical music. The X3 also has a blacker background and better separation of instruments than the M7. Soundstage width between the two devices is about the same, but the much greater depth of the X3’s soundstage really makes the M7 sound flat soundstage-wise. Honestly, I’m impressed at how well the HTC One M7 stacks up against the X3. But make no mistake, the things that are better on the X3 really add up to make listening to it a better experience.
 
Vs. the FiiO E17 (portable DAC/amp combo that the first gen X3 is based on)
 
 
While I don’t exactly have a first generation X3 on hand to listen to, I do have an E17, which the first gen X3 is pretty much identical to in terms of hardware and supposedly even sound.
 
Right off the bat, I can tell that the new X3 has much more treble extension and presents much more detail than the E17 does. The E17’s mids and treble are very smoothed over and really lacking in detail compared to the X3. Vocals especially sound much better on the new X3 than on the E17 and is quite noticeable. Not only are vocals on the X3 more detailed, but I can also hear the slight differences in intonations and volume changes in a person’s voice much more easily and the vocals really come to life compared to in the E17, whose vocals sound lifeless in comparison. As suggested by what I just said, the E17 definitely has a warmer sound than the new X3, though it isn’t excessively warm. The E17 has a slight mid-bass emphasis which simply isn’t there on the X3 2^nd gen – the latter of which is more to my taste.
 
While soundstage width on the X3 and the E17 are comparable, depth is noticeably better on the X3. Things just simply feel closer to you on the E17. Background details in the mix of the music are more apparent and imaging is better on the X3 due to a blacker background and better separation.
 
One thing that the E17 has that the X3 doesn’t is some kind of weird “glare” at certain frequencies to the sound. Some things sound artificially louder and “brightened” than what sounds natural to me, as if FiiO were trying to make it sound like there is more detail than what there actually is due to the really smoothed out top end of the E17. For example, brass instruments sound like they should on the X3, but for some reason are brighter and somewhat harsher than what should be right to me on the E17.
 
Overall, I think the X3 2^nd gen is a pretty substantial jump in audio quality compared to the E17.
 
A quick note comparing the amps of the X3 2^nd gen and the E17 – to be honest, I think they’re mostly comparable in terms of driving power and quality. I think this means that the X3 2^nd gen is not really going to benefit from external amplification unless you get a really powerful and clean amp, given that the E17 amp is not that weak.
 
Vs. Aune T1 mk1 (desktop DAC/amp combo for about the same price as the X3)
 
The DAC sections: I compared the DAC parts of the Aune T1 mk1 and the X3 2^nd gen with both using the Aune T1 headphone amp. With the stock EH6922 tube, I actually feel that the X3’s DAC section is better than that of the T1. With the EH6922 tube, the T1 actually sounds a bit veiled and sounds lacking in detail compared to the X3.  You hear much more airiness and notice tiny ambient cues much better with the X3 DAC. The soundstage with the X3 DAC is definitely deeper, while the width is comparable. Imaging and layering are much more precise on the X3 DAC than the T1 with the stock tube. For some reason, the bass on the X3 also hits harder and deeper. Overall, the X3’s DAC to my ears sounds better than the T1 with the stock tube.
 
With the Aune T1 upgraded to an Amperex Orange Globe (OG) tube, the T1 and the X3 DACs are much more comparable. In fact, I would say they’re about the same quality, and that preference will dictate which one you prefer. The T1 with the OG tube does not sound veiled at all compared to the X3 – to me, they’re equally clear.  Soundstage width and depth are pretty much about the same between the two DACs. Imaging is equally clear and precise between the X3 2^nd gen and the T1 with the OG tube. The only real differences that I notice are that the T1 with the OG tube seems to be slightly warmer than the X3 2^nd gen, and that the X3 presents a more aggressive and dynamic sound while the T1 OG tube combo sounds a bit more laid-back.
 
The amp sections: For this comparison, I compared using the X3 DAC’s section paired with its own built-in headphone amp and paired with the T1’s amp. The X3’s headphone amp presents a smaller soundstage (by a fair amount) in terms of both width and depth. The X3’s amp also seems to be somewhat warmer and “softer” than the T1 amp – for example, brass instruments seem to be “sharper” and a tiny bit more shrill sounding on the T1’s headphone amp. The T1 amp sounds more powerful because it sounds more “effortless” at driving more power hungry headphones such as the T50RP, HE-400i, and the HD700, as in the mids and highs are less etched and grainy. (Also, the T1’s amp can extract more and deeper bass from the aforementioned 3 headphones.)  However, the difference is not as big as you think (and is pretty much nonexistent with easier to drive full size headphones like the HD598).
 
Also, the X3 has an advantage in driving IEMs due to its low output impedance. The Aune T1 mk1 I believe has an output impedance of 10 ohms, which does weird things to the frequency response of my Klipsch X10 by making the bass too boomy and making it too bright in certain parts of the treble. I have none of these problems with the X3.
 
 
 
For whom is this player good for?
 
Tl;dr: The X3 2^nd gen is not only good for anybody looking for a DAP $200 or less, but also for anybody who wants excellent sound for their computer in the same price range.
 
I would argue that the X3 2^nd gen is not only right for people who are looking for a reasonably priced DAP $200 and under, but also for any audio enthusiast who wants have a nice sounding setup, DAC and amp and all, for $200 or less. The X3 has decent battery life, a responsive and well thought-out UI, and is portable enough to make it a strong contender for anybody looking for a DAP in this price range. On the other hand, the X3 2^nd gen also has the handy USB DAC function which works pretty well and its sound quality is comparable to the best of the $200 or less desktop setups (based on my experience comparing to the Aune T1, itself which many think compares favorably to other popular desktop units in that price range such as the Schiit Modi/Magni combo). The DAC is also good enough that I feel somebody could still keep using it down the line and do justice to an upgraded portable or desktop amp. The X3 is a great choice for anybody who wants something that they can not only take with them on the go, but also plug into their computer and listen to at home without feeling they have made any real compromises.
 
Conclusion
 
Tl;dr: The X3 2^nd gen is a fantastic value. I highly recommend it.
 
Has FiiO met my high expectations after I was impressed with their X5? Definitely yes, and they probably exceeded them by putting the amount of sound quality they did into such a small nice-feeling package and at that price point too. I know by now that I’m just gushing about how good the X3 2^nd gen is, and you might be wondering if I really hadn’t been paid by FiiO to say all these things despite my disclaimer at the beginning. I really am that impressed, and judging by the other reviews, I don’t think I’m the only one.
 
Overall, I really want to give the X3 2^nd gen a 5 out of 5 because of its incredible value, but since there are still some very minor problems (notably the volume problem and the USB DAC driver bugs) I noticed, I’m going to give it 4.5 out of 5. The X3 2^nd gen comes highly recommended.
 
This was my first review, and I know that it may not be perfect. If anybody has some suggestions on how to make my future reviews better (such as the length being too long, etc.) please feel free to let me know.
 

Fiio X3 2^nd generation preview
 

 
Disclaimer: before jumping into the device itself, I have to talk a little bit about myself. I am still an amateur on the subject of sound quality, but I’ll try my best to describe my experience.
And this device is from a preview tour. Hence the model named X3K as it is the early name. For other users, it will be “X3” on the box instead of “X3K”
Upon removing the package from the box, it feels very well packaged.
 

 

 
While holding the device on my hand, it has the solid feel. Compare to the X1, it is a bit heavier, which is 29g heavier with the aluminum body instead of plastic. The best thing about being all metal is it is less likely to be interfered with any wireless devices near it. While testing it with my phone on top and having active wireless connection, I did not notice any static noise compare to the X1 with a plastic back.
The silicon cover is a must have if you do not want to have scratches on the device. One downside of the silicone case is it prone to dust, but from my experience with the case, it does not get too much dirt and the dust that got stuck on it can be removed with the wipe of my fingers. A great thing about the silicone case is it has a cover for the line out/coaxial out jack, to prevent dust getting into it while not being used. The cutting for the 3.5mm audio jack is large enough to fit in any type of jacks as AKG, Shure and a few others who will understand.
 
UI
When booting up the device, it shows an animation which reminds me of the Google’s Lollipop boot animation. Not really sure how that would fit into the rest of the UI though…The main screen is almost identical to the X1 with a little bit of changes of colour in the theme. I would say the change is rather an improvement with a few better themes compare to the X1. There are six themes to choose from which I only found four of them to be usable. For example, the wood theme which has light colours on the pattern, it overlaps with the white texts, making it hard to read. The best thing however, is Fiio allows the user to customize their firmware and create our own themes, kudos for that!
It recognize any characters, no matter it is English, Japanese or Chinese. Compare to other devices or music player that give me unreadable characters.
In the Browse files section, even though I choose the language as English, it is showing TF-Card as TF-卡 (Chinese character lol)
I wonder if there is way to change the screen brightness without jumping through settings to change it. Perhaps having some key combo with the wheel?
 
Feature
The DAC mode can be a hazel to configure. While remembering the experience with the E07K was very simple and easy, the X3II is almost the opposite, but a bit of research got the problem solved. It would be nice if the configuration was easier. While using the X3II in dac mode, I am still able to navigate through different places which is a very nice option.
It also has the gain feature to help boost the volume but with my current gears, it is not something I will be using. Another thing to note is the number of volume control is a bit more with 120 instead of 100 in the X1.
I also features a standby mode which is similar to a smartphone, cutting down the booting time needed before enjoying your music.
Battery life
Through the week that I had been using, the battery life is pretty good. I got it charged to full while using it as a desktop dac at the beginning of the week and I hold for the rest of the week even after I sent it to the next person for the review. As my usage, I use the device around two hours per day while leaving it on standby mode.
 
Display
The display is pretty good if you are using it indoor and in dark environment. The display can be dimmed into a comfortable level, but it can be very hard to read under sunlight even at the brightest level.
 
Sound quality
With a few jazz music that has a bit bass in the background, it does not get as punchy as the X1 which I really like because on the X1, I will need to use the eq to soften the bass to have less fatigue.
Overall, it sound warmer than the X1 which I find it similar to the Xiaomi Mi3, warm and punchier bass. Not until later that I found out both the X3II and Mi3 has the Cirrus chip which I see majority of the people find them having a warmer sound.
This is the first time I ever listen to a song through the DSD format. Since I did not have any songs that is in that format, I was able to get a free one from Oppo website which is call “Vision of her” and I quite like the song! It sound really smooth and I can hear better separation of different instruments and vocal sound really clear.
 
Overall, I find it better than the X1 which of course should be. This is a music player that is great for people like me who is on a budget but also want to enjoy some quality music. It has great build quality and the experience was very smooth.
 
I apologize for the lack of details in the sound quality, as I progress in this community, I might update this review for a more detailed one. Meanwhile, feel free to ask any questions.

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Me: I am a 21 year old student living in a small town in India. I would like to call myself a music enthusiast, rather than an audiophile. I was inspired by music since childhood, and as the time passed, the passion of music grew in me, and that subsequently led me to join Head-Fi. Eventually, I found the pleasure of listening to music mainly by the HD600 and recently, by the seductive LCD2 headphones, and realized the true components of recorded music. I usually like to listen to Indian Classical Music along with Bollywood songs. My main listening genres include classical, vocal, instrumental, jazz and sometimes pop.  With time, my sonic preferences have very much grown. I avidly admire transparency, accuracy along with neutrality, and my favourite headphones are K702, HD800 & K812.
 
I appreciate Audio Players which deliver a very neutral & transparent sound quality, along with good battery backup and a decent User Interface. Output power or exterior looks/weight/shape is really not an important factor for me, as long as it delivers sonically. My all-time favourite DAP is QLS’s QA360 which simple is the most wonderful Audio Player I heard & have till date.  You may read my opinion on the excellent QA360 DAP here: http://www.head-fi.org/products/qls-qa360-portable-hifi-lossless-music-player/reviews/12197
 
I will be using my DN2000 IEM & MH30, MH40 & K812 headphones to evaluate the X3 Gen.2 DAP. I will also test USB DAC functionality of the X3II by connecting to a portable O2 amp.

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Intro: FiiO is a highly popular & well established Chinese brand specializing in the area of portable DAP’s & amp/dac’s. FiiO was established in 2007.  Even though a relatively newer establishment in the field, FiiO managed to capture attention of the world by their amp/dac offerings which had attractive price tag & appreciable performance. Back in time, we can remember portable gears (especially DAP’s) would be expensive, and out of reach of a humble Enthusiast. It was the FiiO, who made well performing portable amps, DAP in an affordable price. Particularly their E11 model is legendary & a benchmark in low cost portable amps. This made them a well known name across the Audiophile World. 
 

 
FiiO’s Motto: Love Music, Love Life, Love FiiO!
 
FiiO’s X3 Gen.2 was initially named as X3k, following in the lead of their E11K amp. But later in the production stage FiiO changed the name to X3 second generation or X3 II as we call it. The X3 II is designed to be the successor of aging yet very popular original X3 DAP. My profound Thanks to Jospeh from FiiO team for arranging a review unit for my evaluation.
 
Specifications of FiiO X3 Gen.2:
 

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Let us see how good the X3 Gen II performs,
 
Packaging and Accessories: The X3II arrives packed inside a plain black cardboard box, packed inside a foam packing. Packaging is very good: a usual best by FiiO, nothing to complain about, considering X3 II’s high value aspect.
 

 

 

 

 
List of accessories in the box, which include the following:
 

 
USB cable: Can be used for charging & to transfer the data from X3II to computer.
 
Coaxial Cable: One 3.5mm jack to single RCA socket: henceforth to connect to standard coax cable to carry coax output.
 
Screen guard: Two spare screen guards for applying on X3II's screen.
 
Body Skins: Can be carefully applied on body to give a personalized exterior looks.
 
User Manual: Contains all information about operating theX3II, including contains warranty information.
 
Silicon case: This black & flexible silicone case is supplied to protect the X3II from falls or scratches, and also gives a firm holding grip and anti-skid feature to the X3II.

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Design and Build: The X3II has an excellent overall build quality. Its design is very practical, or shall I say modern, & is easy for day-today operation without any confusion or hassle. The entire housing is made up of high quality aluminium, and is painted in matt titanium colour, and is resistant to fingerprints. It is rectangular in shape with smoothened edges, the X3II is actually quite small & compact in size, and just appears to be smaller in pictures. It feels fairly light when held in hand.
 

 
At the front side, we have an analogue rotating wheel pad (performs up/down scrolling function upon rotating) the pad has rubbery grip surface. It includes an embedded central play/pause button. The rotation is not completely smooth, but with step interval type ratchet mechanism. The knob has grips on its side for easy rotation. Power switch has a pretty great feel, and is very precise in its job. Four buttons (Menu, back, foward/rewind) are uniformly placed around the wheel. An LED is embedded right in the lower centre area of the front side, which gives it a really attractive look.

 

 

 
The display screen here is again large enough for comfortable viewing, and color/resolution on X3II is one of the best I have ever seen in DAP’s. It’s really good & better than most of the DAP’s. The screen is anti-reflective, resistant external lights, and colour output is very crisp and natural. On the top, there is a headphone out socket, and a Line/Coax Out, both in same 3.5mm format. These jacks are a smooth operator, which is neither too tight nor too loose. The socket employs ball bearings instead of clips to avoid scratches/damage on the headphone jack. If we look at the bottom side, we can observe a micro USB port. On the right side a micro SD card slot is present, which again works flawlessly, and has right cuttings to hold the micro SD card. On the left side of the X3II, Power button & two volume keys are located. The Power button is slightly recessed inorder to avoid mistaken switch off’s.  All these work without any hassle, and are of good quality.
 

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Sound: The X3II in overall has a very ‘clear’ & ‘detailed’ sonic character. ‘Accurate presentation’ is the key word. In my view, it is essential for a source to be as neutral and as accurate as possible for an optimal sound quality. Though stage is not very spacious.
 

 
Burn in: The X3II audibly improves with time. Let’s say a playback of 10 hours provides few minor audible improvements, Bass prior to break-in is quite sterile, and eventually it becomes more in body. Mids will sound more open, airy and natural. highs become slightly more clean, soundstage will open up by a margin. DAP’s are known to slightly change their final sonic impressions by using different memory cards. In my case, I have found: Sandisk memory cards provided a slightly rich sound, whereas Lexar’s sounded audibly more detailed and analytical, so that made me choose Lexar card for X3II for best possible neutrality.
 
Driving Power: There is gain setting Low/High, which if switched, provides a high gain (ideal for demanding cans). Else, will provide a low gain (ideal for low impedance dynamic cans & IEM’s) The X3II has 120 step volume adjustments, which is quite accurate and precise. I hardly ever cross ‘80’ volume low gain.  I can say, this DAP is very powerful when it comes to output power, and can put up very high listening volumes in low gain itself. The X3II is also audibly dead silent on any give gain and volume pot. It is also totally immune to EMF and other such disturbances.
 
Lows: are accurate, tight and refined; have a good impact. Depth & extension are good.
 
Mids: sound very neutral, clean. Mids are neither forward nor recessed, and are just about the neutral line.
 
Highs: Clear and detailed treble with very less grains.
 
Soundstage: The X3II is not very spacious or airy sounding. The soundstage width & depth are just good enough. Instrument separation & detailing is very good & appreciable. I really liked the way X3II picked out the details. This is an area where X3II excels. The X3II portrays music as it was recorded. The X3II is very neutral in nature. Faulty recordings are not forgiven, and are immediately picked out by the X3II. I am fully satisfied by the performance given out by X3II, as I firmly believe, sources should be as transparent as possible, and X3II wins in that. Due to its neutrality, X3II does not sound organic, natural or lifelike. But inturn it sounds like a very detailed & accurate high fidelity DAP. The X3II can also act as a USB DAC and can give multiple outputs. Performance as DAC is also pretty good, but as expected, performance is not upto mark as compared to dedicated standalone DAC’s.
 

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Battery & UI:  Battery life on X3II DAP is appreciably good, with about average 7-9 hours general playback. Absolutely no heat detected when charging or during playback. The charging time is also quite fast, (at about 3 hours) by using a 5V 2A adapter as recommended by FiiO. User Interface is actually very modern, fast, and appealing for our eyes. The UI has all basic and convenience general features. Though there are small bugs here n there, which I believe will be solved by FiiO in upcoming days.
Actually UI & button layout it’s pretty simple, yet very advanced functional layout, which I quite like. With X3II,  FiiO has definitely rolled out a very unique, modern yet practical design, which is simple to operate for everyone alike.

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Comparison: I will write a brief comparison with well performing DAP’s in similar price range,
 
FiiO X3: FiiO’s first DAP release & original release of X3 DAP over three years ago. I still have my trusty & three year old FiiO’s original X3. This was then a very popular & performing DAP with a great value aspect. The original X3 is now discontinued. The Original X3 holds a huge personal importance to me, as I enjoyed a lot through it, in my early days of Audio & Head-Fi Journey. Feels very nostalgic whenever I even look at it. The original X3 is comparatively warmer & darker in sound presentation. Also, the function, technology & practical usage aspect is really high in its successor X3II. Build quality is really great on both predecessor & successor.
 
Shanling M3:  Shanling’s sole DAP offering. The M3 is also a excellent performer. Sonically, the M3 is slightly superior to X3II. Transparency & soundstage definition level is greater in M3. The M3 costs about 70$ more than the price of X3II, but well worth the additional price. But the X3II has better UI layout, and practicality features. But in terms of sheer sound quality: Shanling M3 clearly triumphs.
 
Conclusion:  I feel the FiiO X3 Gen.2 is a phenomenal DAP for price. It offers an amazing neutral sound quality, and employs cutting edge design, modern UI and very neat and easy controls. Build quality is very good, sonic presentation is neutral & detailed. It can fairly drive any cans upto 300 ohms. I can whole heartedly recommend X3II for music enthusiast & audiophiles who would prefer a reliable DAP in a reasonable price. A very easy & confident recommendation.
 

 
Pros:
 
1) Build Quality: The X3II has a very good all-metal build. No compromise to be seen anywhere in exterior. Very well designed indeed.
 
2) Sound quality: Sound presentation here is very neutral &detailed, very much appreciable for becoming a good source on the move, which is the base of sonic chain. But comparatively lacks soundstage definitions.
 
3) Driving Power:  X3II DAP is very powerful when it comes to output power, and it can comfortably drive even power hungry cans to insanely loud volumes. Also, the noise floor is very low, and is audibly silent. Good job!
 
4) UI, Display & Controls:  This where X3II stands out from rest. X3ii’s display is simply one of the best I have seen DAP’s. Its vivid and deep colour presentation and low brightness capability has impressed me. UI is very much user-friendly, easy on battery, doesn’t warm up. For controls, the rotating wheel is very innovative inclusion, very soothing and comfortable for fingers.
 
5) Value: Considering the points mentioned above, it is safe to conclude, the X3II DAP has a sheer price/performance ratio. Without hesitation, It is the best performing DAP under 250$.
 
Cons:
 
None at This Price Point

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FiiO X3 Generation 2  Review sample. 
 
From the start FiiO has given value for the money you spend. The new X3 Generation 2 continues the history of the value given for what you spend. Starting with the X3 and now the X3 G2, improvements have been made that add to the positive side of the equation on what you get. 
 
One the the first things the X3 G2 impressed me with, before we get to the sound, is the update user interface, UI. For me the X3 never jelled. I had to do too much thinking about what button did what, it wasn’t intuitive, to me. The new X3 washes that away and brings this DAP in with a new UI that is intuitive and functional. There is almost no learning curve, which bespeaks a well thought out concept on what the user goes through to get to what they want, music. The wheel and button placement is easy to follow and now is intuitive. 
 
The all aluminum body also has a great feel to it and should hold up to the unfortunate abuses that our DAPs occasionally go through, like the fall from a place on the desk or pocket and will be more unscathed and yes I do drop things or pull them off the desk from time to time. Forgetting that your headphones won’t reach 20 feet isn’t always helpful. 
 
The new X3 charges via the USB, which makes it easy to keep it ready to go as there are so many sources of usb charging now. There is a headphone output jack on top and on the opposite side to the right, is the combination line out and coax output. As a complete package the X3 G 2 pretty much as everything you need to use as a portable player, a source using the coax or a source feeding an external amp. 
 
For me a simple straightforward easy to use UI and enjoyable sound are pretty much on the same level. If I have to fumble around figuring out how to get to the music or switch to new music, even if the sound is excellent, the whole interaction is decreased. So with that in mind I am glad that the new X3 is easy to use and has a sound to match. How is the sound? 
 
I use the ESW10 Japan headphones quite a bit. They are a portable, though I don’t wear them when out and about but do take them with me on trips in a nice semisolid carrying case. They are on the ear phones that I am so familiar with, I can tell how music sounds or will sound on my much more expensive phones. To this end I used them most of the time with the X3 G2. For music type, I listen to most everything, favoring well recorded no matter the genre. I don’t enjoy mono much, never have and if it is hard panned right and left stereo with no depth, again, I don’t use the album much. 
 
Sound:
 
Even I often skip ahead after a short bit of reading of a review, wanting to know how something sounds, later, possibly, going back to the other details if I am further interested in the item, whatever it happens to be. 
 
The X3 G2 is a step up from the sound of the sound of the X3. It is more open, dynamic, more detailed, transparent and less warm. So how is that? I don’t enjoy a too warm sound as it covers the music in a thick blanket and I miss the contrasts and musical inspiration that I seek. The X3G2 isn’t cold sounding and slants to the warm but not enough to suck the life out of the music. 
 
On some favorite tracks that I listen to, Neil Young’s live acoustical album from 92, Dreamin’ Man Live 92, there is plenty of space around the sound, that live sound that is important to capture. There is good hall reverb retrieval to connect you with the event. The voice of Mr. Young, is caught with his slight strain unconventional sound is Neil Young’s voice. I enjoy his voice and if you can appreciate it, it has to be done right. I once had Fang of HiFiman listen to a cut I enjoy and he didn’t care for it. He thought Neil sound nasally and he does, a little but it is part of his charm. But if this is glossed over and the bite of his harmonica playing isn’t there, then neither is the essence of his music. 
 
Highs on the X3 G2 are thankfully free of grain, they are smooth and extended. The bass could have more definition but we are not talking about a 1200 or 2400 dollar DAP and for the approximately 200 dollars, the new X3 does a great job of conveying the music to your ears and the bass while not the most defined is not overblown, which can detract from the music. I had no problem driving most all my headphones from the Foster TH900, HiFiman HE-560 and various IEM’s. 
 
Summary:
 
So what do you get with the X3 Generation 2? You get a well laid out machine. It is versatile, easy to use with a great UI, a solid body and some accessories to take care of your needs for charging from a 5 volt source, external amp or digital transfer to another dac and you get a silicon slip on case to protect your conveyor of musical enjoyment! 
 
Looks like to me, for a small package, if you want to have fun and enjoy your music the X3 Generation 2 is waiting for you. 
 
 
Support for: 
Native DSD 64 and 128
AIFF
APE
FLAC 
ALAC
WMA
WAV
MP3 and 2
 
Full specifications can be found here: http://www.fiio.net/en/products/39/parameters

Fiio 3X Second Generation Review
 
Lots of other reviewers have talked about the technical aspects of the Fiio X3 Second Generation so I am going to limit my review to what I heard and felt. This is a subjective review.
 
In Toastmasters, where I’ve been a member for over 20 years, we have a saying about doing evaluations. It goes like this: Evaluate the speech you heard and not the one you would have liked to have heard.
 
So I’m applying the same principle to my review of the Fiio X3 Second Generation (3X) which I want to thank Joe Bloggs, a Fiio online customer representative, for inviting me to the 3X tour of Canada.
 
I am a retired professional photographer, community newspaper and national magazine editor (mainly trades to do with the cabling and electrical business in Canada) and I’m an active Amateur Radio operator so I’ve had headphones on my ears most of my life.
 
Recently I got into audio in a big way after going to my local headphone shop here in Toronto to buy a $75 Fiio E-10 K DAC and came back with a Fostex HP-A8C DAC and a set of Audeze LCD-X headphones. Talk about up selling. I went back a week later and got the Fiio DAC anyway.
 
I’ve Got A Lot of Fiios
 
I started a few years ago with a Fiio E11 which I plugged into my IPad so I could get better audio when watching NetFlicks. Cheap and cheerful the E11 really added a whole new dimension to my video viewing enjoyment.
 
Then I got a Fiio E09K amplifier and accompanying Fiio E17 Aspen DAC/Headphone amplifier for my upstairs music room so I had some idea of what to expect from Fiio when it came to the X3.
 
The Review
 
So thanks to the last guy on the tour who charged the battery I was immediately ready to start my review. 
 
Within two minutes the X3 had passed the “no manual” test and I was hearing music after inserting my micro SD card from my Astell and Kern AK-100 II. (More about this later.)
 
What I Saw
 
First the X3 is much smaller than I expected at 9.5 cm long, 5.5 cm across and 1.5 cm wide. (My AK-100 II is 11 X 5.5 X 1.5) and the X3 weighs 135 gms (compared to 170 gms for the A&K). 
 
The Fiio case is made of lightweight aluminum with rounded corners and all the controls pretty much flush with the case. The X3 uses a main rubberized wheel with four push buttons on the front surface to do the navigation. Now some people like wheels and some don’t and it comes down to personal taste. I found the wheel just fine and I liked the navigation method and the menu system which comes up on the LCD screen. It’s a good system in my opinion. 
 
One of the things I really like about the X3 menu system is it goes asleep really quickly and if you need to reawaken it for any reason it’s back with a single tap of the top button of three on the side of the unit. The other two buttons are volume up and down.
 
However, when in sleep mode, the volume up and down buttons turn into next song or last song buttons with the middle button moving you forward into your playlist and the bottom button moving you back. Very cool and well-thought out feature.
 
The X3 does have a tiny LED indicator light on the front panel that runs blue if all is well and turns red under charge and green when the battery is full charged up. Very cool again.
 
A full charge is supposed to take three hours and give around 11 hours of playing time. I didn’t check this out but it would seem about right.
 
My first pleasant surprise after pushing the on button was the super fast loading time for the software. The X3 is ready to go in just over five seconds. (The A&K takes 30 long, long seconds!) Love it. This is the way all software should load - fast.
 
Now I haven’t yet progressed to the point I’ve got a ton of music files in a variety of lossless and lossy file formats (let alone understand it all) but the X3 literature says it supports DSD, DSD64, DSD128 (.iso & .dst and .dff); APE; FLAC; WAV; WMA Lossless; Apple Lossless; MP2; MP3; AAC; ALAC; WMA and OGG. I’ll take Fiio at its word on this. Other reviewers cover this technical stuff way better than I can.
 
What I Heard
 
So I’ve got my mico-SD card out of my A&K and into the X3 and I turned the unit on and there were all 1500 tunes. Very cool. Never had the X3 not read the card first time and I can't say that about the A&K!
 
Now I had the chance to run the same songs on the X3 from the internal memory card and from the AK-100 II from its streaming function from my ITunes library at the same 44.1kHz/16bit. I could also switch headphones back and forth to compare what was happening.
 
So we’re at the place where I’ve fallen into the trap of evaluating the speech I would have liked to have heard as opposed to the speech I did hear. And for Fiio, it’s not necessary bad news.
 
Here’s an analogy: I own a 2003 Toyota Celica with 137,000 kms on it. I love this car. It’s a fun car to drive. For me (at 66) it never gets old and I hope to keep it on the road for another couple of years at least.
 
And then there’s the guy in my small town who drives a Ferrari. It’s a red Ferrari. I can recognize it by the sound it makes from several blocks away. I would love to own a Ferrari but not only can I not afford a Ferrari, I couldn’t afford the insurance for a Ferrari. And thus I don’t own a Ferrari whether it’s red or any other colour.
 
Same principle applies here so after a day of switching headphones and DAPs back and forth I decided today to run the X3 all on its own and let it speak for itself.
 
Remember I’m retired so in the last two days I’ve got around 10+ solid hours of listen in so far and six of them were with the X3 into mainly Shure 535s. The X3 plays differently with different headphones. My elderly Sennheiser 439s (modded) and much maligned 590s sound muddy and boring as do a set of $60 Skull Candy in-ears.
 
The Momentums (on-ears and on sale here in Canada for $139) sound great as do my super cheap $36 T-Peos D-202Ns and Grado 60s.
 
After six hours of continuous music ranging from Bob Marley to Lucinda Williams to The Doors to Ani DiFranco to Beth Orton to Lyle Lovett to the Buena Vista Social Club with a smattering of opera singer Cecilia Bartoli I can say the X3 is a wonderful sounding DAP especially when you consider the estimate selling price of $199.
 
Now are they a contender compared to the Astell and Kern AK-100 II. Ah...no. The AK-100 II with the Shure 535s (often with a Cypher Labs Picollo amp in the mix) provide the best portable music experience I’ve ever had ...period. It’s wonderful and when I compare the X3 to the experience, the X3 comes in second.  The A&K has a lot of other features as well including onboard memory and the ability to accept wireless streaming files from the MacBook Pro plus Tidal (someday soon I hope) but those are only features and for $900 you should get something added.
 
This is sort of like my Celica vs the Ferrari story.
 
So today I thought I’d give the X3 a chance to stand on its own and I plugged in the Shure 535s and put my music playlist on random and let it run and run. My ears never tired of the experience which is not something I can say about six hours with the Audezes and the Fostex DAC which can be intense.
 
I did run into one issue which since I can’t determine the cause and it went away doesn’t concern me. When I first tried the X3 with the Shure 535s I could hear a slightly click - click sound for the first few seconds after plugging in the very sensitive in-ear 535s and turning on the X3. This click sound happened a couple of times and then disappear for good. The Shure 535s have never clicked before or after and I’m don’t know what happened here but it did go away and wasn’t present with any of the other many headphones I tried on the X3.
 
So I went back to swapping out headphones and the experience was the same for the Momentums, the Grados and even the super-cheap T-Peos. Now I’m not a fan of equalization but the  X3 has a lovely 10-band equalizer with 10 presets which might be very popular with some folks who own one set of headphones. Nice touch. 
 
The headphones I used for this review are the typical types of headphones that people are going to use with the X3 and Fiio is going to sell a couple of big boatloads of X3s to people who want a better listening experience with a much larger variety of file formats and memory than smartphones can manage.
 
Now for those who are adventuresome, the X3 can also be used as a DAC. 
 
I compared it to my Fiio E-10 K which is my go-to DAC in my office attached to my MacBook Pro where I stream TIDAL and either listen it to through my office headphones or stream it to my living room (Apple Airplay into Fostex HPA8C and Audezes) or to my tiny music room (Airplay into Fiio E09K and Fiio E-17 Aspen and various headphones) and the X3 was terrific.
 
What I Felt
 
So would I buy one for myself? Yup especially if I didn’t have the A&K unit. Would I recommend it to a friend? Absolutely and I recommend it here to you. 
 
In the world of high-end audio $200 is a rounding error when it comes to what we can spend to setup our systems. So this could be the best $200 you spend to listen to your music. Add on snappy headphones like the Grado 60s or the T-Peos or Momentums and you’re going to be very very happy.
 
Just don’t go out and test drive a Ferrari. You’ve been warned!
 
Day Three
 
I got up this morning to the revelation that not once during a whole day of listening to the X3 did I even consider adding an external amplifier. I almost always use my A&K with a Cypher Labs Picollo external amp. This combo is spooky good into the Shures.
 
For the most part the A&K sounds great without it but add the Picollo and my foot is tapping away keeping the beat and it doesn’t much matter which set of headphones I’m using I get the same effect. However it is more noticeable when I’m using the Sennheisers than any of the other headphones as they need more drive and sound flat without the Picollo.
 
Adding the Picollo is easy by plugging in a jumper from the amp to the X3’s Line/Coax Out plug and the 535s are rocking. I pause the music and there’s absolute silence out of Picollo even with the volume at maximum.
 
So that works and the X3 automatically goes into a Line Out mode (if that's what is selected in menu) with the Picollo plugged in so let’s try again without the Picollo. I’m listening to Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space and my foot is tapping again. This is very good audio. Amazing with or without the amp.
 
Okay enough with this third party amplifier. Let’s see what the X3 makes of a Fiio E11 with the 535s.
 
First there’s an expectable, minimal amplifier hiss that the 535s can hear near the noise floor from the E-11 but the music keeps on keeping on. I am really enjoying the X3 so let’s swap out the 535s for the Sennheiser Momentums and it’s time for a little more Bob Marley. The Momentums are dead quiet. They don’t hear any hiss so let’s hit play and…
 
Oh yah mon this is heaven: Is This Love That I’m Feeling? Yes Bob it is - it is.
 
Let’s take the E11 out and I can tell the bass notes are diminished a little. If I wasn’t swapping back and forth I wouldn’t notice the difference but the E11 especially with the three-position EQ button makes the X3 just rock when it comes to Bob Marley. I tried different settings with the X3 built-in equalizer but there was nothing in the presets that sounded better than no equalization. I could have done a custom setting but the X3 didn’t need it so why bother?
 
A quick swapping of the E-11 back to the Picollo and surprise, surprise I preferred the pairing of the Fiio X3 and the Fiio E-11. I’m not sure why but the E-11 EQ just seems a little more gritty (another technical term) compared to the very smooth sounds of the Picollo and I like gritty.
 
Goodness I hope there’s some audio engineer out there wisely nodding his head in agreement and I’m not just sitting here going slowly senile listening to Bob tell me it’s all going to be alright.
 
This is an outstanding experience with or without an external amp. The X3 is also very very tolerant of getting plugs pulled and pushed without any hysterics that require rebooting. This would appear to be one stable operating system. 
 
Somebody should get a raise for this!
 
I was thinking of wrapping up this audition and going back to my regular setup but this is so much fun I’m running the X3 into the Momentums for at least another day. And really if you just add a little volume to drive the Momentums there’s no need for an external amp. Sure an external amp will change the sound but not so much as you’d notice after 30 seconds of listening. Some difficult to drive headphones might appreciate the amplification but there’s nothing I own (aside from the Sennheisers) that needs it when it comes to the X3.
 
But all is not good. Huston we’ve had a problem here. I took the X3 outside in the bright sunlight and the screen becomes unreadable. It’s so unreadable in sunlight that even holding a cap over the X3 to shade it doesn’t help. It’s the type of LCD display that’s the issue as my IPhone, IPad and Kindle are readable in bright sunlight. 
 
Don’t think you’d want to try searching for a tune while you’re at the beach with this display. The Astell and Kern AK-100 II is somewhat better but still pretty hard to read in full sunlight but is readable with some shade from a baseball cap. The X3 is not.
 
Day 4
 
So my previous experience swapping out the X3 with the AK-100 II reaffirmed my original decision to go buy an insanely expensive DAP (as opposed to the AK-240 which is a very insanely expensive DAP) as the AK does so much more and does sound better (remember the foot tapping test).
 
Having said that I do realize there is a $700 difference in price so I thought of of another way of straightening out the playing field. I took the entire day listening to the X3 for an hour or so and then switching over to the AK-100 II for another hour or so. 
 
I swapped out headphones starting with the Sennheiser Momentums on-ears and then to the Shure 535s and then to the T-Peo D-202Ns.
 
Strangely enough, just for casual listening and walking around the house and the neighbourhood I preferred the X3!
 
Here’s why: First the published dimensions don’t give you an adequate sense of just how much smaller the X3 is to the AK-100. I can carry the X3 in a shirt or pants pocket without any issue. There are no sharp edges to catch on clothing and unlike the AK-100 no wheels or other controls protruding from the case.
 
The X3 is also a lot lighter. You can forget you’re carrying it around.
 
Sound-wise each unit sounded superb…about 10 minutes into each listening session. In other words, if you don’t have a Ferrari in the driveway, the Celica seems pretty good. 
 
It’s the same with the audio from the X3 compared to the AK-100. Give your ears a few minutes to adjust and compensate for the slightly different sound reproduction, then the music itself sounds very good on either machine.
 
For this test I put my 1500 song playlist on random run and there wasn’t anything from folk to rock and roll with an occasional opera soprano thrown in that didn’t sound very good on either unit.
 
So if you’re in the market for a really decent sounding DAP and you’re not willing to spend your entire old-age pension cheque then the X3 will thrill you and at my age I don’t get thrilled nearly enough anymore. 
 
Thanks X3 and Fiio.
 
 
 
 

FiiO X3 2nd Generation
 
First of all I want to state that this review is obviously a very subjective opinion. Everyone hears things differently, so you might experience the device in an other way than described.
This review is text only, I assume you already know how the X3 looks...

I received it about two weeks ago, and I take it everywhere I go. I listen to it at home, outside and use it as a DAC at work. The headphones I use are Sennheiser's HD598 with the RC-HD1 replacement-cable from FiiO.
 
Build and User Interface (UI)
 
The X3 is fully made of metal, which gives it a great feel in the hand. The scroll wheel improved over the X1 yet still needs a bit of improvement in actually scrolling click for click. But besides that, it is perfectly built.
The second Generation also got the same UI as the X1, but has a few more features in it's firmware. The most notable is the deep-sleep mode. This puts the X3 in hibernation and let's you power back up instantly. You can set the idle time-out for that under 'System Settings'. Personally I'd like to be able to set it below one minute (currently the fastest timeout setting), same goes for screen timeout (currently 30 sec).
The software definitely improved over the first Gen, it is more user friendly and more comfortable to use. Although there are still some features I'd like to see in future upgrades, like a better and faster way to create playlists with the device itself. Another thing that caught my attention is the shortcut button. The coders really outdid themselves with it's abilities. In every mode (category, files, etc) it got different jobs. Let's say you are deep in category mode, looking at some songs of your favorite artist and want to go back to some other artist. Just hit the shortcut button and it opens up a small head up display (HUD) where you can chose between all the different categories. Simply a wonderful feature, it makes navigating much easier and faster. It does the same thing in other menus (homescreen → Play Settings; Browse Files → HUD)
 
Sound
 
This part of the review is the most interesting for everyone, but as stated at the top, a subjective opinion.
The new X3 has got a great new DAC (CS4398), which is also used in other DAPs which go for a lot more money than the FiiO. Of course it has 192/24 decoding and also comes with native DSD support.
To me the sound of it is outstanding. It is clear, open and listening to it makes a lot of fun. The sound it produces appears to me as more natural and detailed as the first X3. I listen to a lot of electronic music, such as Aphex Twin, and it was very easy for me to differentiate all the instruments and sounds, also the cymbals, vocals and strings came out incredibly realistic and true sounding. The bass is very smooth and subtle, but exactly how I like it.
I'd say the sound quality is a step up from the first gen X3.
 
Final thoughts
 
Once again FiiO has made an outstanding product, and for 249€ you can't go wrong with it. You get a beautiful and incredible DAP alongside a powerful DAC.
I'd rate it 4/5 since I think the software still lacks a few features, but if those get fixed it would get the full points.
Overall the new X3 absolutely is worth it's money. It is great sounding and feels wonderful.
 
Using as a DAC
 
Whenever I'm using my Laptop I hook up the X3 to use it as an external DAC, and as a long time Linux user, I came to see that it doesn't use it's full potential out of the box. If you use pulseaudio you might want to tweak a little bit to get 192/24 decoding. It's only a matter of five minutes time and the audio quality improves a lot! If you're using ALSA instead, which is recommended because it sends the audio directly to the device, you're fine.
But for now, I am going to show you how to enable 192/24 decoding and later how to get DSD playback.
 
By default pulseaudio is configured for 44.1KHz and 16bit audio output. To set it to high quality encoding do as follows:
 
open a terminal
To view the current settings of pulseaudio:
 
pacmd list-sinks | grep sample
 
this will propably look like this:
 
sample spec: s16le 2ch 41000Hz
sample spec: s16le 2ch 41000Hz
 
these show the internal audiodevices (HDA and HDMI)
 
To enable high quality open and edit the daemon.conf file
 
sudo leafpad /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
 
now look for these lines:
 
; resample-method = speex-floar-1
; default-sample-format = s16le
; default-sample-rate = 41000
 
uncomment them by removing the ; and change the lines to:
 
resample-method = src-sinc-medium-quality
default-sample-format = s24le
default-sample-rate = 192000
 
Save the file. Stop and restart pulseaudio.
 
pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --start
The new settings will increase the CPU usage a little, but it will be worth it.
The last thing to do is to give the X3 a higher priority in the hardwarelist (under systemsettings).
 
DSD playback with MPD
 
MPD (MusicPlayerDaemon) is a powerful crossplatform audio backend. You can use it under Linux, Mac and Windows. I even think you can use it on mobile platforms, but I'm not sure about that.
There are a lot of different clients (frontends) for MPD depending on the system it's running. I use Cantata because it is the best for me. It is lightweight and clear.
You can find a list of clients here:
 
http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients
 
MPD is also able to play DSD files, but it isn't enabled by default. Once again, you have to make a small yet effective modification.
I'll show you the steps to get DSD playback through MPD in Linux (I am using openSUSE)
 
At first we need to install mpd alongside with its dependencies.
 
Open up a terminal and install the packages.
 
sudo zypper in cantata mpd
 
As said, I use cantata. Replace that with the client of your choice.
 
Next step is to set up mpd for the X3.
First we need to list up all available audiohardware.
 
aplay -l
 
this list now shows us that the X3's name is simply “DAC”, we will need that for later when configuring mpd.
 
Now open the mpd.conf file stored in /etc/
sudo su
leafpad /etc/mpd.conf
 
Find the audio output section and add/edit the following to the alsa configuration:
 
name “X3”
device “hwAC”
dsd_usb “yes”
 
We use the hardwarename here, because since it's a USB DAC you'd have to use the same USB port everytime you connect it to your PC/Laptop, and the hardware address might change then.
Save the file, and start mpd. It will run in the background. Start and set up your client.
 
If your client couldn't connect to 'Personal' the next time you started it, mpd isn't running. Simply put mpd in autostart to prevent that from happening.

First of all I would like to thank FiiO for choosing me as part of the world tour of the new X3 DAP. I am pretty new in reviewing audio devices, and I feel really grateful for including me.
 
About me
 
I am not considering myself as an audiophile. I like enjoying my music, and if I don’t like it, I change it. I used to own several players from Cowon that did not deliver, and ended up selling them. Same with headphones, if the sound is not right for me – I try to sell or simply don’t use them. My preference is as natural sound as possible, I don’t want it to be pretty, bright, dark or anything else. As natural as possible, for as sane price as possible. Last month I visited BH Camera in NY, and listened to Audeze LCD-3, Fostex th500rp and Sennheiser HD800 headphones (hooked up to high-end rack as well), so I think I know what is a really high quality natural sound. Out of the three I really liked the Fostex.
 

Unboxing, package, physical impressions

 
I received the unit after it was reviewed by some other reviewers before me,and the unit is from pre-production batch that may have differences with the units becoming available in stores. The review was conducted with the unit running on version 1.0 firmware, the same as the production units should have.
 


 
 
 
The box itself looks really good, colored red and black. You can note that you see X3K on the box, it was one of the preliminary names given to the unit before it became simple 2^nd generation. The box also has a sticker that should assist to avoid buying counterfeit units.
 

 
 
Inside the red/black outer box sits another black carton box. It is hard and has a nice texture to it, great at making you expect something special within.
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
There is a lot of usefull stuff bundeled with the player.
There are 3 sets of stickers to be applied to the player, wood, graphite and American flag styled. There is usb to micro usb cable (same as most of smartphones use now) and line out coax cable (please note, that the default setting for the line out mode is coax, if you will connect it to a regular car stereo or and amp you will not hear a thing, you need to change the setting to Line Out).
There are two additional screen protectors (the player comes with one pre-applied)
And there is the silicone cover, more about it soon…
 
 

 
 


 
 
While the unit is inside the cover you have acess to all the necessary buttons and outputs. Line out has an integrated cover that you can open at time of need. The memory card (up to 128 Gb at the moment) is covered, but you can always cut a hole in the cover if you happen to swap those cards often. I intentionally did not clean the silicone cover to show how it looks like in real life. While protecting the player, it is also great at collecting dust particles as well.
 

 
 


 
 
 
 
As you can see from the pictures, the built quality is excellent. The whole unit is made from aluminum. The scroll wheel has a higher quality feel than X1 and X5. Still, one click does not mean one move in the menus/one item scroll. I got used to it, and don’t think it’s much of a problem.
The unit has a status LED that lights blue when the unit is one, green while it’s charging and red when it’s being charged. Pleae note that you can operate it while charging, just make sure you don’t connect it to a PC but to charger (or to PC with charging only cable, no data leads).
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Well, now I hope that you have a better understanding of the size of the unit. I was not surprised when I saw it at first, because of previous short experience with X1. But X1 surprised me at the time, it was much more compact than I expected. I think the size of the new X3 is just right, not too bix and not too tiny. At the pictures, you see it compared with Sandisk Sansa, LG Nexus 5 and a standard sized gift card. Ah, and my hand
 

Let’s Play?

At first I will describe the headphones used and my impressions, and give overall conclusion at the end.
 

 
Those are my best headphones, the Koss Tony Benett Special Edition 1. I sold ATH-M50’s in order to get those, and can’t be happier. Very natural sound.
Well, at first I thought that there is something wrong in the match between those headphones and X3. I heard a lot of high frequencies and a very weak bass. After hearing several albums I figured out that there is nothing wrong with the setup, it only plays what’s on those recordings. If it was poorly mastered, your ears will suffer. And if mastering was well done, it’s a joy joy joy.
 

 
As much as I like Koss KSC-75, they are just not a match for X3. A lot of information is just lost, and after listening with better phones you just don’t want to go back.
Of course X3 drives those 64 ohm headphones with ease, and the titanium coated drivers are great for metal.
 

 
 
 
Those are two earphones from Chinese smartphone companies – the Xiaomi Pistons 2^nd generation and the OnePlus silver bullet.
Usually I just can’t use Pistons – the sound signature is too V shaped. I was really surpriced but with X3 they sounded very different that I remember from trying them with the Clip+. They are actually usable. Not great, but still.
The OnePlus give a more balanced sound, but mid frequencies are somewhat distant sounding.
 
 

 
Now that’s a match. Those are Sennheiser PX 80. Actually those are PX 100 first edition, reissued. Same sound, with slightly different (still steel-enforced) headband.
Wow… Deep bass, sparkly teble. Mids are not the strongest part of those headphones but with most music they sound so good …X3 really makes you smile when you put them on, and keep on smiling…
 


 
 
That was an experiment. The Sennheiser HD 580 have 300 ohms of impedance, that’s twice the maximum rated supported impedance of X3. Well, actually they did sound nice, compared to the same headphones connected to AMC pre-amp (at about quarter of it’s max volume). While being driven decently, I had to crank up the volume of the X3 to 90-100% (High Gain setting), so if you really intend to use those, getting more powerful DAC or an amp would be a great idea.
 

About the sound

 
I would describe the sound of X3 as open, detailed and airy. I like the sound of X3 more than of the X5, because a slightly less piercing high frequencies, without that metal feel.
I cannot point at any property of the sound of X3 that I did not like, it’s great. It’s definitely not slow, and I like it. While testing I went from classical to metal, and enjoyed every second.
If you like laid back sound – this is not the DAC for you. If you like a heavy coloration – also, I could not find it in X3. I heard a very fast sound, great control of low frequencies, sweet mids and details in high frequencies area. The power is enough for me, any of my headphones can be driven to a volume above ridiculous with ease. I usually listen to flacs, and while enjoying the so-called hi-res tracks, not sure if I could notice a difference in blind test.
 
Usage,menu,additional
 
If you are a perfectionist, not ready to settle for nothing X3 might not fit you. The menus are far from being perfect, I don’t really understand why it’s divided the way it’s divided right now. Sometimes the screen does not refresh instantly after you skip to next track. And the screen itself can be called average at it’s best. The resolution is low, viewing angles are low, and the brightness at maximum … low. I don’t see it as a problem, as it’s not a video player and it’s acceptable. Switching to next song is instant, never had such a fast response in any player.
DAC function (using the unit as external USB sound card) works really well, after installing drivers for windows. In order to install the drivers for Windows 8/8.1 64 bit you have to do some additional actions besides actually running the setup, because the driver is not signed.
When I used integrated sound card, only 3/5 was my grade at Tidal test (blind testing if you can spot lossless vs 320 k audio). With X3 as DAC – 5/5.
The unit never got stuck, I never had the need to restart it or use the reset hole. At first it accepted 32GB Kingston memory card from Sandisk Sansa, and later a brand new 128 GB Sandisk memory card. Transfer rate is about 7 mbyte/sec, I consider it good enough for transferring several albums at once (an initial load would better be done using card reader).
The equalizer is implemented in a very unusual way, if you like playing with equalizer, I’d recommend to read forums or better ask owners about the implementation. It is difficult for me to explain, just trust me – it’s something completely different from what what you are used to.
The inline remote works for both earphones I tested the player with.
Before I got the unit I was warned that it’s a pre-production model that might have problems, and higher level of hiss could be one of them. Well, I did not hear that hiss, and I tried really hard with “silence” mp3 and maximum volume setting on all headphones I could find.
 
Final words
 
I really liked the unit, very sad that I have to return it. It is not perfect, what it does good it what I am looking for at the moment, and the other stuff I can live with.

Fiio X3 V2 World Tour 2015, UK.
 
Let me begin by saying that this Fiio X3 v2 is on lend to me for a short time as part of the world tour of 2015, the unit does not belong to me and I have no affiliation to Fiio in any way, nor am I getting any financial benefits from this review. All opinions are my very own! And you will not necessarily agree with me, which is only right and proper.
 
Lets begin by setting the stage based on ME! From a very young age, I have been into “Hifi,” for want of a better word, I have built my own valve amplifiers, quite a few speakers and have owned an enormous amount of equipment in one shape or another, be it valve amplification, or solid state, to CD players, etc, etc. You know how it goes! This all started in the 70's, so that gives an idea of my age.
My musical pleasures have been the normal fare, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Nice and recently I have been scouring the music industry for new sounds and have found to my delight, the likes of Ayreon, Anathema and IQ. Not to mention the tried and trusted Genesis and Nightwish!
 
In recent years I have gone from the living room to the portable music machine, some rather basic and not very good sounding and I was amazed to find that there is a thriving world of portable audio out there for those who choose to follow it but like normal hifi, it is also very addictive!
My pet hate though, is badly recorded music, ( or at least in my own opinion,) and I find that there is no need for it at all. In the past vinyl has been supreme and I still believe that it is one of the best music reproduction methods, try listening to a saxophone on good quality vinyl, then listen to it digitally, not quite the same, though the gap is diminishing! Some recent albums by well known artists are badly recorded, I won't mention who but to me they are so flat and un-emotional, it is unforgivable! I could ramble for ages, sorry. Most of my life has been in industry and with my head under the bonnet of cars, so hearing is a tad reduced, this means I need some treble emphasis to make it easier to hear, this goes for the upper mid-range as well, please take this into account when reading my review. My other burden is big ears, the actual ear hole is quite large and I need very large seals to make most of the headphones fit my ears and seal to be able to produce bass properly.
 
My equipment;
As mentioned, I have had a few bits and bobs over the years but my portable enjoyment began with a Sansa Clip, then I moved on to a Colorfly CK4, then added a Hifiman HM601 and lately an Ibasso DX50.
 
Sansa Clip; Simple small easy to use, not too shabby on the sound production front and always there when you need it.
 
Colorfly CK4; Liked it at first but now it seems dependant on what headphones you use and can even sound good or bad on what music you play through it, I find it a bit dry, un-emotional, but it can extract a reasonable amount of detail from the music. It always seems able to power any headphones, though you may need to use almost full volume. Soundstage is slightly forward of centre and spans a good 190 degrees and it seems to work best with .wav files rather than .flac files. But the UI is not very good and it is not able to go back to the last played song on re-powering, (or I cannot find how to do it!)
 
Hifiman HM601; This unit was my favourite for quite a while, it is slightly valve like in it's reproduction, some reviews I have read say it distorts badly, maybe but the sound in life distort, it's not perfect but I enjoy the way it plays music, it seems to favour .flac files but throw .mp3 and .ogg files at it along with .wav and it just plays the music. My only gripe, is that the line-out socket is damaged on mine and I cannot use an external amp as I want to!
 
Ibasso DX50; Such hype for this piece of kit, at first I found it had a strange soundstage, it feels inclined at about 30 degrees from the back of your neck, to somewhere forward and above your forehead, the left to right seems to be from approximately 8 to 10, with a break from 10 to 11, then 11 to 13 where you find another hole between 13 and 14, then 14 round to 1600 hours to complete the picture. Detail is reasonably good with, for me a reasonable depth to the music, I also expect my players to reproduce “bass!” The world around us is bass orientated, so why have a player or headphones that do not reproduce the main basis for all sounds? And this DAP is a bit dry in this region, I almost put it up for sale after a short time as I just didn't like the sound it made, then I bought a Fiio E17 and plugged it into the digital output and listened to the music from that DAC, then it all came together, clear music, a brilliant soundstage, front to back, side to side, everything, it now has bundles of emotion. And me being quite old, I find that now I need more emphasis on the treble and mid-range, (too much time in industry,) this DAP, plus DAC and amplifier make sweet music for me, it doesn't matter if it is .mp3. .ogg, .wav or .flac files, it plays and can be enjoyed with clarity and detail, I love it. But just to add a bit of spice, I now have a “Three Stones, Minibox E+” amplifier which feeds from the Fiio E17 into the headphones, now we are cooking.
 
Headphones; Sennheiser HD598's, UE TF10's, UE 900's, Vsonic VSD3 (fixed cable,) and a set of RockJaw Kommand headphones. Plus assorted others.
 
Sennheiser HD598; My only pair of over-the-ear headphones, a joy to use, comfortable, they can take a short time to tune into but then they just draw you into the music.
 
UE TF 10; My favourites for a long time, good bass, great detail, soundstage that is as big as the amplification will allow, slightly muffled in the treble but this can be useful with some recordings.
 
Logitech UE 900; For me, these are my ultimate's for detail, soundstage and musicality, my only gripe is that they are too light on the bass, treble detail is fabulous, midrange is clear and informative, not overbearing at all. It took me quite a while to find “tips,” to fit my large ear holes but when I did, then these began to shine but still with a slight lack of bass, for me!
 
Vsonic VSD3 (fixed cable); These are a recent purchase and I tried them for a while, they were ok, nothing more so, they sat in my headphone box for a month or two, until I took them out and ran them in, now we have a set of headphone's that reproduce good music. To begin I thought they lacked bass, too much treble and strong mid-range, now they can dig deep into the bass, the treble is tamed to my level and the mid-range sings sweetly! Clarity and detail abound, I would almost put these in the same bracket as the TF10's, but with better treble!
 
Rockjaw Kommand; Another recent purchase but I loved these from the moment I heard them! The bass was a bit squawky and not at the same level as the treble, the mid and treble seemed very withheld or restricted but as they have been used more and more, the bass is taming down and getting closer to a matching volume level compared to the treble. I cannot put my finger on it but these are just so nice to listen to, the balance is not quite right but do they boogy? They sure do! My main problem with these headphones, was getting a seal with the tips, but a set of Comply large seals sorted that problem. Even the over-the-ear clips are just right for me, it was just the seals, now that they are sorted, the whole lot sings.
 
Enough rambling about my equipment, though I wish to paint a picture of my tastes and to allow people to understand where I am coming from with this review.
 
 
Fiio X3 v2;
 
Likes; The unit is nice in the hand, soundwise, you get a lot of unit for your money.
 
Dislikes; The rubber boot, everything sticks to it and there is not a slot to fit the SD card, the click wheel sometimes works on single and sometimes it takes two clicks. No on board memory. Slightly more volume on the right channel.
 
First Impressions.
 
I am not really a reviewer, so my explanations may not seem very good but I will try and convey what I mean!
 
The box looks good, it looks like you are buying something decent and substantial, when you get it open, the inner box is also pretty good, then when that is opened, the player is revealed, getting it out of the snug fitting back board is not so easy but not that bad, it could have done with some finger grooves. I finally got it out of the box and it is a nice solid piece of kit but the rubber protector is not so good, a few things I am not too keen on.
 
What I do like is that this DAP will drive everything that I have, with ease and my opinion is that I could replace my Ibasso DX50 and the Fiio E17 with this single unit and save me some money and carrying weight.
 
Being a “man,” I didn't bother to look at any instructions but rather relied on learning how to operate the unit by playing, not the best way but you tend not to forget as easy. The UI is quite good, there are a lot of options but it took a while for me to fathom how to go back and forth through my album lists, I got there in the end but did find one problem, I have a lot of .wav files as for some reason I like how they sound but this player puts them all into an “Unknown” file and lists them in numerical order, there is more than likely a way round this but I didn't try too hard, I just ripped my CD's to .flac as well.
The fact that there is no on board memory is slightly disappointing but not a sale killer, the DAP can see the SD card easily enough and you just need to update the media and you are away, much better than the DX50, it can take some time before it decides to see the SD card and if you are not careful, it locks up and needs a complete reset which then wipes the DX50. The X3 is much better in this respect.
One gripe I have is with the rubber boot, it gives a bit of protection but needs removing every time you wish to swap the memory card and everything sticks to it! Fluff, wool, dog hairs, human hairs, you could possibly use it to stick the DAP to your dash, only joking! If it was finished in a shiny or smooth finish, it may well become slippery and more easily dropped, so I can see where that may have come from but it is still annoying. All the buttons are accessible from the boot, I never had a problem with non-operation of any buttons through it and it even blocks the digital/line output socket to keep it clean, which is good.
Loading files directly through the DAP is easy and at the usual expected speed, (my laptop is getting on a bit, so I don't expect fast transfers,) and when updated, the files can be viewed by either “album or artist,” or if you are bored, by “song.”
When the DAP is starting and shutting down, there are no untoward clicks or pops, unlike some other DAP's, so this prevents me from needing to get the headphones off before switching off.
Another feature that I like is the ability to change the output type of the extra socket, this can be either a digital output to connect to an external DAC, or as a line output to be able to feed it into an external amplifier, it means one less socket to worry about.
Another thing I noticed and this will most likely be corrected in the final builds if it is a problem, is a small imbalance between left and right channels, at first I thought it was ok but I went into the setting to check and the previous user had adjusted the balance two clicks to the left, when I centred it, the right sounded louder.
This DAP has a lovely flat back but this worries me as well, I think it needs some dimples, or some rubber dimples just to prevent the back from getting scratched in normal use, though if you keep it in the boot, then there should be no such problem.
Another slight quibble is the click wheel, sometimes it needs two clicks to move, others it needs only the one, I still have not found any connection between one or two clicks as it seems random.
Reading this back, I seem like I am finding lots of faults, these are niggles not faults, this unit is brilliant for the cost, there will always be something better to beat it somewhere but overall, this is a quality unit as you would expect from Fiio. And I like the size, the X5 is too big for my liking but this is just right!
 
How it sounds;
 
From the start, I decided to try and keep this as simple as possible, I wanted to use my favourite headphones and also to see if the DAP excels with any particular one of my headphones, then look for the detail and differences.
As mentioned earlier, I use the DX50 + E17 + Minibox amplifier, I love how this sounds with most of my headphones but the Kommands need to go directly into the E17 for my liking. On the other hand, the X3v2 does it all in one unit, I would say that the sound is very much like the newer E17K, a bit on the dry side for my personal taste but detailed with a soundstage that starts about 8 going round to 4 on the clock but with a canopy that limits the depth away from the listener, whereas, the E17 seems to push the soundstage further out but is limited to 180 degrees of spread.
A very small difference also noticed was with piano, the X3v2 produces this wonderfully clear and expressive but with the voice of the lead singer from IQ, the slight vibrato in his voice is smoothed over.
 
Headphones;
 
Sennheiser HD598; These are the only over-the-ear headphones I have at present, I like them because they sound the way I like it and when plugged into the X3v2, this was no exception, the X3 had no problems driving them, nor would I expect there to be a problem as all my equipment drives these easily. I much prefer IEM's, I can get closer to the music and keep most extraneous noise out.
 
Rockjaw Kommand; At present these are my favourite, good bass and forward treble, they sound really good with the X3, the bass has punch, articulation and rhythm, the treble has great detail and a piano sounds absolutely brilliant. This combo produces emotion in bucket loads, you want to lie back and listen. “LB&L!”
 
Logitech UE900; Before I got the Kommands' these were my preferred headphones but now they seem much too lean, using the X3 gave them more depth to the bass but not as much as when connected to the Minibox amp, I always thought of them as too much treble but the X3 seems to have tamed them and I don't like the sound I hear, it's to dry and emotionless.
 
Vsonic VSDS3 (Fixed Cable,); Another headphone with detail but lacking in bass, even when coupled to the Minibox, these things are dry and using the X3 made no difference at all, I got the impression that this was not a match at all, very dry, extremely detailed but no real dynamics and most definitely no emotion.
 
Ultimate Ears TF10; Now here we have a headphone that sounds like it was made to partner the X3v2! Again my impression is that these can produce some bass but not a lot and the top end is slightly limited, not with the X3, these things boogie, bass is detailed and not overpowering but can kick, mid range is clear and detailed and the treble is smooth, no aggression or harshness, just fluid. I must admit, I was surprised how well they worked together.
 
Another trial I put the X3 through was using the line output and feeding it into my Minibox amplifier, this produced a lush smooth sound that makes you just want to lie back and listen to album after album of varied music. I like the ability to be able to assign the socket to either a line out or a digital output, rather than having extra sockets for different types outputs, a very versatile DAP.
 
With my own equipment, I tend to leave the EQ alone, I did this also with the X3 but when I tried to use the EQ, the fixed settings were not at all to my taste and switching between the “off,” and the “custom,” settings, even when the custom was all at zero, made a huge difference in the sound, almost as if when you put all the settings to full, they then matched the “off” settings.
 
Conclusion;
 
As with all equipment, it comes down to personal taste, you have the option to buy and buy until you find what you like but considering how much I have spent to get to where I am at present, the Fiio X3v2 is fabulous value for money. The sound signature is not much different from what my three unit combo produces but in one package and you still have the option to add an amplifier or a DAC and amp to fulfil your spending or sound requirement needs. I found the rubber boot an annoyance but it will add some protection and it definitely will not slip from your hands with that on! The UI is good, not brilliant but I wouldn't know how to improve upon it, support for .wav files seems strange but that may well be me not knowing how to make the changes needed and the click wheel was sometimes one and sometimes two clicks to make a change. But all in all, a very enjoyable player to use and at a good price point, well worth the money, I think these will fly off the shelves when released.
 
Thank you Fiio for the option to try this DAP, I have enjoyed it and like what you have produced, I look forward to your next generations of units to come.
 
Dickymint.
 

Disclaimer

 
This unit was in my possession for a few days as part of the Australasian tour. I'd like to thank @FiiO and @Joe Bloggs for making this tour possible, and @Brooko for organizing and including me in this tour.
 
*Based on latest firmware version 1.0 that I've updated at the time this review was written.
*I listen at relatively high volume, so my impressions will be based on this. Please be aware that there might be variations in impressions at different volume and such issues may/may not exist on this product.
*As I only use IEMs, I will only comment on its usage with IEMs. 
*No EQ/sound effects were applied throughout duration of having this unit on all devices.
 

 
Build:
 
The X3II is nearly identical to its younger brother X1 in size and build. It has a solid build with brushed gun-metal aluminium body along with the buttons, and and feels nice to the touch with a nice weight to it. Fairly smooth edges, no protruding parts or looseness. The buttons are firm and responsive. 
 
One thing to note is the silicon case for X3II. Dust and lint tend to stick to it. And with the silicon case on the unit it's a bit difficult to put it into and take it out of the pants' pockets as they are a bit sticky. If this unit is mine I'd rather not use it. I would suggest a soft plastic/faux leather case instead. 
 
User Interface and Usability:
 
The UI is reasonably intuitive, similar to the X1. I was able to find my way around the menus and settings without much fuss without referring to the manual. Buttons are easy to get used to. The boot-up time is quick and the UI has a nice overall presentation. Updating is simply drag-and-drop latest firmware into the root folder of the Micro SD card, and long pressing power button on the side and top left button on the front to initiate firmware update. Scan time of music from Micro SD card is within reasonable bounds.   
 
Fiio has listened to user feedbacks and looked into fine-tuning their DAPs and making them even more user-friendly. Power button is flat along the side of the unit to differentiate itself from the volume buttons which are slightly protruding out. The default volume up button has a protruding indent so it can be felt by hand while inside the pocket. The scroll wheel experience is improved compared to the X1, with a bit more grip and tactile feedback. When I unplug my earphones it pauses and few minutes later goes into standby to conserve battery. When I want to use it again, just short press on the power button and the X3II switches on instantaneously. The instant on feature is a really nice touch. With screen off and music playing, long pressing the volume buttons become next/previous song. These default actions for the various buttons are customizable. Also, there's no 'pop' sound when switching on X3II with earphones plugged in. These may be small details, but they are small details done right by Fiio compared to some other DAPs in terms of improving the user experience and ensure a smooth time listening. 
 
Battery Life:
 
The X3II is listed to last around 11 hours. Sounds about right when I used it under normal circumstances. Better than a lot of current DAPs on the market. Pretty impressive for such a small unit.
 
USB DAC issue with Windows 8/8.1:
 
The X3II couldn't be recognized as USB DAC when connected to my Windows 8.1 and this issue seems to be common. There is a workaround to this problem and just follow the instructions in the link below:
http://fiio.me/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=40391&page=1&extra=#pid106818
 
Sound:
 


Headphone Out (Unamped)
 
X3II continues the new line of tuning consistent with its younger brother X1, offering a fairly neutral sound with only a tinge of warmth, but most different from X1 is that it has added treble sparkle.  
The noise floor is present with very sensitive IEMs but considered low enough and acceptable to me, and when music is playing it is not an issue.
 
High:
Highs are smooth and yet the treble extension is pretty good with sufficient sparkle. It is sufficiently detailed with barely any grain.
 
Mids:
Mids have good clarity and details and don't exhibit any harshness. 
 
Bass:
Well-controlled bass that has good decay and hits hard. Bass doesn't bleed into the mids. Bass quality is clean and fairly textured.
 
Soundstage:
Soundstage is fairly wide with enough depth and uniformly distributed around the space. Imaging and layering/separation is good.
 
My main comparison here would be against my Vivo XShot. The X3II has slightly thicker and fuller mids than the XShot, and the bass has longer decay and it is punchier. Both has similar soundstage in terms of depth and width. On the other hand, the X3II has slightly less clarity and airiness. The X3II sounds much more engaging. 
 
Line Out (Amped)
 
X3II was paired with my Meier Audio Corda PCStep via line out and noticeable improvement was noted. There is more air and better clarity, soundstage opened up, and both ends were extended a bit with the bass being tighter and having better impact while treble having more air. 
 
DSD playing 
 
DSD is something new for me, as before the X3II I don't own anything that can play DSD, but luckily for me there are DSD and FLAC versions of the same albums already in the Micro SD of the tour unit. Under controlled conditions with everything the same and volume-matched by ear, I noticed that finer details are more pronounced on DSD files. It's akin to watching a video on YouTube on 480p and then you switch it to 720p (example just for jump in quality sake). It's more life-like and you get a real sense of feelings portrayed by the musicians. I wasn't much of a believer in hi-res audio formats before and the skeptic in me was truly impressed and looking forward to more comparisons of such in the future.
 
As USB DAC
 
Sound quality is the same as expected as playing directly from unit itself. Compared to my Meier Audio Corda PCStep as USB DAC, there is a bit more warmth, heavier bass impact and decay, whereas there is less airiness, detail and clarity and slightly smaller soundstage. 
 
Verdict:

 
In this day and age, the audiophile world is littered with many products costing way too much past thousands of dollars and beyond. Could anyone get any decent DAP at all for the budget conscious? Absolutely. DAP + USB DAC in one. Plus native DSD decoding as icing on the cake. With Fiio X3II , you definitely can, in a ultraportable hi-res DAP that decodes DSD64/128. Right on the heels of releasing the X1, Fiio has outdone themselves again with yet another solid deal in the X3II , with sound quality, build quality, portability and usability all rolled into one package that doesn't break the bank of the consumers.